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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




i 




I 







Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

HON. WM, A. GABESCHE. 

Picture taken at St. Pierre when he was consul to Martinique. 

In the introduction of this book Mr. Garesche says: "I 

feel, in writing this book on the paradise of the 

West Indian Islands, as if I were compelled 

to sound a paean, and alas! a dirge." 



/ 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

MRS. MARY A. GARESCHE, WIFE OF EX U. S. CONSUL 

TO MARTINIQUE. 

Mrs. Garesche, like her husband, cannot speak praise enough 

of the beauty of the Island of Martinque. Many of 

her friends and relatives are numbered among' 

the dead. 



THE COMPLETE STORY 



OF THE 




AND OTHER GREAT DISASTERS 



rBY= 



MARSHALL EVERETT 

THE GREAT AUTHOR, TRAVELER AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITER, 
ASSISTED BY THREE OF THE SURVIVORS. 



A full and graphic description of the DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY ST. 

PIERRE with chapters covering all the GREAT VOLCANIC 

ERUPTIONS SINCE THE DAYS OF POMPEII. 

The beautiful island wherein Paul and Virginia found such a haven 
of beauty and content, the scene of a tragedy that surpasses even 
the imaginative description of Bulwer in his story of "THE LAST 
DAYS OF POMPEII." 



SCENES AMID THE RUINS 

PAINTED WITH AN ELOQUENT BUT SYMPATHETIC PEN. 



Travels through the ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE AND CONTIGUOUS ISLANDS OF 
VOLCANIC FORMATION which are all in danger of being as completely destroyed as was 
Krakatoa in the Pacific, 1883. Interesting descriptions of the life of these Islands, the 
climate, products, etc. 

The natives, their vocations, habits and humors, illustrated with photographs by Mr. E. A. Lee, 
taken during an extended tour of several months through the islands of MARTINIQUE, ST. 
VINCENT, BARBADOES, and all the other islands in the group effected by the present 
seismic disturbance. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~" COPYRIGHTED BY HENRY NEIL — IQQ2. 



Vht library of 
congress, 

Two Copies Recsived 

COPVRIGHT ENTfJV 

CLASS <^XXo. No. 

33t>t% 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1902 

BY 

L,. G. STAHL. 



. 



PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



Calamity proves the kinship of the world. In the presence of 
disaster differences are lost sight of, enmity ceases, and the great 
heart of all mankind throbs in sympathy with the afflicted ones. 
Any event that brings the world together, though it be but for a 
moment, and though the sacrifice of human life precede it, not only 
deserves tosppemands to be recorded that the present and future 
ions may*read of it. 

And so, believing that the people of to-day and of to-morrow 
demand an authentic account of the destruction o^.St. Pierre and 
of other similar catastrophes, we offer this voliiipsrto the public. 



deserve 
jj|ftferat 
m ^And 

W c\amar\r{ 



Endorsed as it is by one who was born on the island of Martin- 
ique and who knows whereof he speaks, and prepared under the 
supervision of one who spent years there as the accredited repre- 
sentative of the United States and whose personal knowledge covers 
every phase of the record here presented, it commends itself to 
the consideration of every reader who would have an accurate 
account of the terrible holocaust of May 8, 1902. 

It is not only the story of the destruction of St. Pierre, but 
the story of other great disasters as well, and will prove a valuable 
reference work in that line. The causes of earthquakes, volcanic 
eruptions and hurricanes are set forth and made clear to the gen- 
eral reader not familiar with scientific theories. We have made it 
accurate, and have tried to make it interesting and instructive. 
How well we have succeeded we leave to the judgment of that 
public which has bestowed such generous approval upon our efforts 

in the past. 

The Publishers. 




THE VOLCANIC CRESCENT. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As one who, alas! was Consul to Martinique, writing my 
impression of the island of Martinique, words failed me there when 
I was Consul to express its loveliness, and in the sorrow I feel in 
the destruction of one of its fairest parts I lack expression, I feel 
in writing this book on the paradise of the West Indian Islands, 
as if I were compelled to sound a, Paeon and alas! a Dirge. I 
lived there happily as the United States Consul for five years. I 
knew the people, mingled with them, studied their habits, their 
customs, and their dispositions, so that, while a stranger when I 
arrived, they learned to count me as a friend to the people and 
the island. In saying this, I mean to say that the white aristocracy, 
descendants of the blue-blooded French, and the Noirs (the colored 
merchants) were equally my friends. The colored population 
ranges from darkest black through degrees of mulatto and thence 
to octaroon, many of whom are as white as the average French 
citizen of Martinique. 

The white ladies were noted for their beauty, and the colored 
and the octaroons for the regularity of their features according to 
the Caucasian idea of beauty. There was no social relation between 
the whites and the colored people in the island, yet the colored and 
the white merchants met daily either at the "Bourse" (in English 
the "Merchant's Exchange") or on the "Place Bertin," which 
was a promenade shaded by beautiful Tamarind trees, where they 
XJromenaded, and separating into groups according to their color, 
discussed their daily business affairs or French politics in a quiet, 
harmonious way. 

The island itself was a dream of Paradise. The blacks and the 
whites had no occasion to dispute. While the bulk of the people 
were colored and while the greater area of the island was owned 
by the whites, there was an element of the colored population, 
owners of property, educated to the same degree that our own 



10 Introduction. 

people in the United States are educated, who felt that as property 
owners and civilized people they could not afford to allow an out- 
break of the ignorant negroes and acted as a "buffer" in keeping 
them in subjection. Besides, France, who owned and controlled 
the island, maintained both at Fort de France and St. Pierre a 
part of the French army, which, while it did no constabulary duty 
in the towns of Fort de France and St. Pierre, nevertheless patrolled 
the whole island, mounted or on foot, and was a menace and a 
terror to any disturbance by the lower element of the population. 

As for the island of Martinique itself, I rejoice to say that you 
cannot find in the world so extraordinarily beautiful a place. I met 
there tourists who had gone over the world where any civilized 
man had traveled, and who told me that in the course of their 
travels they had never seen such successive panoramas of ravish- 
ing beauty as Martinique unfolded in their drives and their tours 
through the island. Imagine, if you can, a country where you 
encounter naught but hill and dale, mountain and valley, valley 
succeeding to mountain and mountain succeeding to valley. 
Imagine, in all ihis island a system of roads throughout that would 
make our American streets sink into insignificance. Imagine that 
bordering these roads are wild flowers— Begonias growing wild, 
the Hibiscus, that beautiful red bell-shaped flower, of which latter 
they make hedges in Martinique. Imagine Morne Rouge lying 
between St. Pierre and the monster Mount Pelee, which so sud- 
denly belched fire, ruin and destruction, and yet so merciless to 
St. Pierre was merciful to Morne Eouge, lying midway between 
the two. Imagine Morne Rouge, as I said, a plateau on the rise 
between St. Pierre and Pelee, the demon of destruction, a lovely 
country place where flowers bloomed perennially and the scent of 
whose roses met one at least half a mile ere one reached the vil- 
lage, for Morne Rouge was a bed of roses and all flowering shrubs 
and plants of the tropics. Cold type and white paper with black 
ink cannot convey a faint idea, even, of the loveliness of this fair 
isle. 

The people of the island were saturated with French courtesy. 
Nowhere in the West Indies did the white and colored races dwell 



Iktkoduction. 11 

so well in amity, and I speak whereof I know, because I had occa- 
sion, officially or unofficially, to visit almost every island in the 
Lesser Antilles. The people of Martinique were aristocratic by 
birth, by breeding, by education. The cream of the colored popula- 
tion, while having no social affiliation with the whites, were most 
intelligent, upright, courteous and well behaved. 

The schools from primary to the collegiate course gave to the 
colored population an education equivalent to the average high 
school in our country; the French whites sending their children 
to the convents and colleges maintained by the religious orders, 
and afterwards sending their sons to Paris or the United States 
to broaden their education. Hence, the idea so prevalent that the 
people of Martinique were uneducated, half civilized and ignorant, 
is a false supposition. The average female servant in Martinique 
could read, and write a most legible hand. 

Those who have driven over the magnificent roads bordered by 
wild flowers that we cultivate with such care as rare and curious, 
who have seen the magnificent fields of sugar cane waving in the 
breeze and awaiting the sickle, who have seen the Cacar bending 
beneath its weight of berries, who have seen the banana with its 
wealth of yellow fruit, fruit as well as food; those who have seen 
the rubber trees in their giant growth casting shade for yards in 
every direction, who have seen the bread-fruit tree, productive of 
food and grateful shadow, and who have tasted the ' ' Mang, " ' ' the 
Mang Julie, Mang sans pareil, the Mang d'Or," and others, only 
they know to what full fruition does the Lord God allow His shrubs 
and trees to blossom and fruit and shade for the fortunate mortals 
of this world. And when, iu conjunction with all these beauties of 
nature, you realize that the flow of purest water was unceasing all 
over the island, that even St. Pierre, a town of 35,000 inhabitants, 
was never bothered with a fly, that mosquitoes were almost un- 
known, that epidemics were a rarity, that the health of the whole 
people was remarkable, that the birth rate was normal, and the 
death rate extraordinarily small, even for a location anywhere in 
the world outside of the West Indies. The amusements of the 
people were simple. The colony every year supported for about 



12 Introduction. 

three months an excellent opera troupe from France, granting the 
company a subvention of about twelve thousand dollars with free 
use of the finest theater in all the Lesser Antilles, if not in all the 
West India Islands, with privilege to collect and retain all receipts, 
requiring the company only to pay the expense of lighting, clean- 
ing and policing the opera house. 

No cock fighting, gambling, bull fighting or other such amuse- 
ments, indulged in by some of the Latin races, were known in 
Martinique, and any attempt to introduce them would have been 
frowned on by the people, black as well as white. 

The island was equipped with the finest usines or sugar fac- 
tories, having all the most modern machinery to manufacture sugar 
and cetrifugate it, separating the raw sugar from the molasses. 
The molasses thus obtained was then transferred to the rum dis- 
tilleries, where they manufactured the finest rum in the world, all 
the surplus of the island being taken by the nearby West India 
Island, the bulk being demanded by French, both in its raw and 
mature condition. The town of St. Pierre manufactured the finest 
liquors in the world. They were shipped to France, bottled in fancy 
glass and reshipped to the countries abroad, labeled as "French 
Liqueurs." In addition to Creme de Menthe, Curacoa and other 
well known liquors, Martinique sent abroad "Parfait Amour"— in 
English, Perfect Love— "Creme de la Vanille," Cream of Vanilla, 
' ' Creme des Ananas, " . " Cream of Pineapple, ' ' and others too 
numerous to mention. 

The population was most devout in the observances of the feasts 
and festivals of the Church. The churches were crowded at all the 
masses Sundays and on holy days, and Corpus Christi was a day 
once seen in St. Pierre to be long remembered, with the whole 
populace suspending labor and following the sacrament in proces- 
sion to the three altars gorgeously decorated in prominent places 
of the town. 

Mi-Careme was a carnival. The colored people, black, mulatto, 
quadroon and octaroon, quaintly arrayed, danced through the prin- 
cipal streets of the town to the accompaniment of their own musi- 
cians ; some masked, some girls arrayed as pages, some as mon- 



Introduction. 13 

keys, some men as buifoons, and while every one drank his or her 
rum and water, it was the rarest thing in the world to witness 
there a case of intoxication. And while on this question of drink- 
ing, I wish to say that in the five years I was, resident in Martin- 
ique I knew only one white man who was a drunkard, and he was 
tabooed by his whole family ; and I can add in addition that in the 
height of enjoyment in the greatest exuberance of spirits by the 
colored people genuine intoxication was so rare as to be cause of 
remark and the person offending was scorned by the negroes them- 
selves. 

Fearing that I may tire our readers before they commence the 
perusal of this work, I can only say in conclusion that Martinique 
prior to its destruction was the nearest approach to any idea we 
could have of the Garden of Eden. Alas ! like all things earthly, 
its beauty was evanescent, it has passed away, and while I sigh for 
its destruction I am proud of the ready sympathy our great and 
grand country has shown in the hour of distress, and I know that 
generous hearts of my countrymen will reap full meed of gratitude 
from that poor impoverished people. Thinking of what it is, know- 
ing what it was— and pray God may be again— I can only say in 
conclusion, praying for its restoration as I now and always shall 
do, "Haec olim meminisse juvabit" (it will be a delight always to 
me to remember these things). 



fli r^<? 





May 14th. 1902. 



E 



L. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE. 

PAGE 

Forty Thousand Souls Hurled Into Eternity in an Instant — Destruction, De- 
vastation and Death — An Avalanche of Fire — Rivers of Molten Lava — A 
Glimpse of the Lower Regions — Falling Buildings Engulf Fleeing Men 
and Women — A Carnival of Horrors — Destruction of Shipping in the 
Harbor — Later Eruptions 29 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE— ITS HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, VEGETA- 
TION AND INDUSTRIES. 

The Most Picturesque of the West Indian Isles — Discovered by Columbus — 
Peculiar in Topography — Famous as the Home of Josephine — Startling 
Record of Great Disasters in the Island — Commercial Interests of the 
Island 60 

CHAPTER III. 

THE PEOPLE OF MARTINIQUE— THEIR LANGUAGE, RELIGION, EDUCA- 
TION AND HABITS. 

The Perfect Physique — Grace — Carriers of Merchandise — Dress — Peculiarities, 
Customs, Society, Amusements — A Paris in Embryo — Market Place — Gov- 
ernment, Literature, Public Schools, Private Schools, Morals 81 

CHAPTER IV. 

MONT PELEE IN SLUMBER AND ACTION. 

Mont Pelee as it Seemed to the Inhabitants of Martinique — Famous Summer 
Resort — Pelee Not Feared by Natives — French Government Bulletin — 
Mont Pelee's Death-Knell Fate Expected — Letters Telling the Story of 
Danger — The Governor's Report 96 

CHAPTER V. 

QUICK RELIEF FOR THE SUFFERERS. 

Hunger and Destitution of Survivors — Message of President Roosevelt — Quick 
Action of Congress — $200,000 Appropriated at Once — Activity of Navy 
and War Departments — Many Vessels to the Relief — The World Hears 
and Heeds the Cry of the Destitute — Nations Respond — King Edward 
Sends $5,000 as a Personal Contribution — President Loubet Gives $4,000. . 118 

15 



16 Contents. 

chapter VI. 

DISPOSING OF THE DEAD AND CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS. 

PAGE 

Visitors See Death, Chaos and Silence — Appalling Scenes of Volcanic Disaster 
— Corpses Found in Piles on Shore — Buildings Torn Down — Lava Blocks 
Form Titanic Ruins— Relief Parties Find No Sign of Life — Cyclones of 
Gas, Mud and Flames — Looting the Dead — General Disorder 141 

CHAPTER VII. 

ST. VINCENT AND ITS DEADLY VOLCANO MONT SOUFRIERE. 

General Description of the Island — Climate, Soil and Productiveness— Pic- 
turesque Kingston — St. Vincent the Scene of Many Volcanic Disasters — 
La Soufriere in Olden Times — Its Latest Eruption — American and British 
Relief — A Diary of Terror 151 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FUTURE OUTLOOK OF MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT. 

France Offers to Transport All Wishing to Leave Martinique — Disorganization 
of Trades — St. Pierre Must Not Be Rebuilt — Fort de France Safe — Ex- 
periences of Mr. George Kennan and Mr. G. J. Kavanaugh — Professor 
Heilprin's Discoveries — Aid to Science — New United States Consul to 
Martinique 174 

CHAPTER IX. 

RUMBLING THROUGHOUT THE CARIBBEAN SEA. 

Volcanic Islands of the West Indies — Non-Volcanic Islands — Topography 
Liable to Change Islands in which the United States are Interested — 
Sinking of Ocean Bed — Interesting Speculations — Earthquake in Guate- 
mala — Other Cities Damaged, etc., etc 191 

CHAPTER X. 

STORIES OF MARTINIQUE SURVIVORS. 

No. 1 Story of the Destruction — No. 2 Story of the Destruction — A Cyclone of 
Gas — Story of an Officer on the Danish Ship Vakyrien — Pitiful Story of a 
Sailor on the Roraima 205 

CHAPTER XI. 

LOOKING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD. 

Religious Sects that See in the Martinique and St. Vincent Horrors the Begin- 
ning of the Total Destruction of the Earth — Bible Prophecies Quoted to 
Prove the Second Advent of the Messiah at Hand — Prof. Mangasarian 
Refutes the Idea That the World Is to Be Destroyed — The Race May 
Become Extinct — Hopeful Signs of the Times 212 

CHAPTER XII. 

LIGHT ON MYSTERY. 

Home of the Volcano — Regions to Be Avoided — Asama's Vast Crater — Vol- 
canoes of Iceland, South America, Central America, Alaska — Craters in 
the United States — Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier 230 



Contents. 17 

CHAPTER XIII. 

VOLCANOES— THEIR CAUSE. 

PAGE 

Volcano Mountains — Formation of Craters — What Precedes Eruptions — Pacific 
Ocean Bounded by Volcanoes — Matter Ejected from Volcanoes — Distance 
Ejected — Nature of Lava — How Lava Moves — Gas and Sulphur and Poi- 
son Ejected 247 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FAMOUS VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD. 

What They Are — How Formed — Table of Volcanoes — Pacific Ocean — Atlantic 

Ocean — Indian Ocean — Mediterranean Sea 268 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII. 

Lost for Centuries — Excavations Begun in 1755 — Living Pictures — Bulwer's 
Magic Description — Love Amid the Ruins — Boiling Water — Ghostly Pic- 
tures 275 

CHAPTER XVI. 

MODERN ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS. 

Three Thousand People Killed in 1631 — Connection Between Earthquakes and 
Volcanoes — The Eruption of 1779 a Magnificent Display — Modern Erup- 
tions — Pictures Showing How "Vesuvius Sweated Fire" 294 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA. 

Until Recently Krakatoa Almost Unknown — First Signs of Eruption — Air 
Filled with Fine Dust and Air Waves Encircle the Earth — Remarkable 
Phenomenon in 1883 — Terrific Eruption in That Year — Most Tremendous 
Explosion Ever Known 298 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

HAWAIIAN ERUPTIONS AND THE FAMOUS KILAUEA AND MAUNA LOA. 

Magnificent Description by an Eye-Witness — A River of Molten Metal — Con- 
tinual Stream of Lava Heats the Ocean for a Distance of Twenty Miles — 
Mauna Loa's Crater the Largest of Any Volcano in the World 312 

CHAPTER XIX. 

VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Famous Volcanoes Now Possessions of the United States — The Mayon in 
Province of Luzon — Taal South of Manila — Many Destructive Erup- 
tions 320 



18 Contents. 



chapter xx. 

DESTRUCTIVE ERUPTIONS OF ETNA— OLDEST ON RECORD. 

The Eruptions of Mount Etna the Oldest Recorded of Any in the History of 
the World — The Poet Virgil Describes It — Ancients Believed a Living 
Giant Resided Under the Mountain — A Stone Fifty Feet in Diameter 
Thrown from Its Crater 333 

CHAPTER XXI. 

EARTHQUAKES, THEIR CAUSE AND FREQUENCY. 

Earthquakes the Most Destructive Agent of Nature — Narratives of Calamities 
of a By-gone Century — Frequent Occurrence of Earthquakes — Scientific 
Theory of Earthquakes 347 

CHAPTER XXII. 

DISASTROUS EARTHQUAKES OF HISTORY. 

Record of Earthquakes from 464 B. C. to the Present Time — Earthquake in 
Ancient Sparta Which Had an Important Political Bearing — Gibbon's 
Description of an Earthquake — Fifty Thousand Slain at Lisbon 355 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, HURRICANES, AND TORNADOES. 

Whirlwinds — How Caused — Velocity — The Dread of the Desert — Cyclones — 
How Formed — Course — Velocity — Where They Take Place — Damage Done 
— Hurricanes — How Formed — Danger — Course — Climax — Track — Phenom- 
ena — Cause of Tornadoes — Their Appearance — Damage Done — When They 
Occur— What to Do 362 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 

Great Disaster in the United States — Loss of Life in Johnstown Flood, 2,300 
Men, Women and Children — Breaking of Dam in Conemau h Lake — 
People Warned — Relief Quick — Damage of Other Towns — Communication 
Cut Off — Fire and Darkness Add Horror — Cambria City Swept Away, 
Millville Gone, Woodville and South Fork Wrecked — Stories by Sur- 
vivors — Identification of Bodies, Clearing the Debris 387 

CHAPTER XXV. 

DESTRUCTION OF GALVESTON, TEXAS. 

Tidal Wave, Hurricane, Loss of Life, Destruction of Property — An Awful 
Saturday Night — Population — Storm Seasons — How Storms Are Diverted 
— Storm of 1875 — A Solemn, Somber Sunday — Plundering the Dead — 
Martial Law Enforced — Decomposition of Bodies — Relief 402 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE WEST INDIAN VOLCANOES AND THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 

Disturbance in Lesser Antilles— Professor Heilprin's Views Regarding the 
Collapse of These Islands Nicaragua Canal Route in Danger — Weakness 
of Earth's Crust in Certain Localities— Scientist's Former Ideas of 

Craters Scouted— The Future of the World— Drilling the Earth for Heat 

Prophecies for the Year 1902 — God Reigns— The World Lives. 456 




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Copyright, 1902, by Mrs. Mary A. Garesche. 

RUE PETIT VERSAILLES— ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL STREETS OF 

ST. PIERRE. 
This picture was taken before the destruction of the city. In another place in 
this book will be found a picture of this street as it appeared 
shortly after its destruction. 



SPECIAL ARTICLE 

BY 

VINCENT de MESSIMY, a Native of St. Pierre. 



If there has ever been a book written to commemorate the most 
awful calamities that have befallen humanity, this is indeed the 
book. 

Pompeii, Lisbon, Caraccas and Yeddo are names that have long 
caused the heart of every human being to shudder, but to-day we 
have to add to that terrifying list another name: St. Pierre of 
Martinique. St. Pierre formerly stood for all that was beautiful 
and enchanting. To recall it reminded one of peace in a luxuriant 
garden, a place made happy and kept in bloom by the fancies of 
nature. 

Many things combine to make the island of Martinique more 
beautiful and more romantically interesting than any other of the 
West Indian islands. Its mountain scenery is more poetically 
beautiful, its towns more strikingly picturesque, its architecture 
more unique, and its population more beautiful in color and type 
than anywhere else among the Windward Islands. 

St. Pierre was the principal city of the island in point of popu- 
lation and commercial importance, although Fort de France is the 
civil capital. 

Down to the water's edge the streets of St. Pierre descended. 
Behind were gardens and plantations sloping up the mountains. 
The city was built on rising land, and the streets, which followed 
the coast line, mounted one above the other, so that the upper ones 
were two hundred feet above the sea. The streets were intersected 
at right angles by long avenues which descended to the water's 
edge ; sometimes, as in the native quarter, the descent was so sharp 
as to end in steps. Down the center or at the sides of every street 

21 



2& Special Article. 

ran canals of rapid flowing water, carrying the refuse of the city 
to the sea. 

Many of the houses were built in the eighteenth century, and 
were constructed with marble and hardwood floors. The color of 
the houses was a bright yellow, with blue or violet shutters and 
doors, which gave the island town a coquettish gaiety. These 
houses were set in tropical gardens, and shone like gold in the 
splendors of a dazzling sunlight. 

St. Pierre sprang into prominence as the home and refuge of 
many beautiful families that fled to it from the terrors of the 
French revolution. The new people made of it a new realm; 
indeed a race so gentle, kindly and generous that the expression 
' ' un coeur de Creole ' ' has long become synonymous with a golden 
heart. 

True it is that beauty lasts only for a season. On the morning 
of May 8, 1902, St. Pierre became suddenly the center of the 
very fire of hell. Mount Pelee, which for centuries had hovered 
over the Metropolis City, broke the granite bonds which had held 
its hidden fires in check and belched forth its river of fire until 
nature's elements had spent its force. 

The volcano had, on several occasions, warned the people who 
attempted to abide at its foot, but these threats had no serious 
effect more than to frighten them into settling a little farther away. 
The skies were too blue and the atmosphere too pure for the brood- 
ing of dire results; the air was filled with music too sweet to be 
ever pierced with the shrieks of human victims; the earth itself 
was too gorgeously attired with shrubs and flowers to be replaced 
by ashes and lava. So thought the good people of St. Pierre, and 
yet Mount Pelee was all this time standing like a sentinel holding 
itself ready to respond to powers within. 

The fatal, never to be forgotten work was accomplished within 
the space of three short minutes. The verdant hills, the rolling 
plains, the rapid rivers, and the city of St. Pierre itself became 
a bed of boiling lava, while the sky was hidden by clouds of burn- 
ing ashes, molten rocks and sheets of flame. 

St. Pierre is no more; its population of over 30,000 souls is 



Special Article. 



23 



buried under a shroud of ashes, and fully 20,000 more, caught on 
the path, are to be added to the list of dead or dying. I say dying 
for who though alive will not mourn their dead until they too shall 
journey on into the unknown and there learn the secret of death 
and suffering? 

The sorrow of the people of the West Indies is universal and 
sympathy is expressed by all human hearts. The only consolation 
in this great catastrophe is the thought that the whole world mourns 
—not France alone, but every nation of the civilized world. The 
prompt, generous impulse of the United States of America and 
Great Britain in answering the cry of distress, hunger and pain, 
will never be forgotten by the French Republic, 

As a native born at St. Pierre, Martinique, I am lamenting 
the loss of many relatives and friends. My eyes fill with tears at 
the thought of the dead, yet my whole heart throbs with gratitude 
for the generous sympathizers, and I can only say, Amen, God's 
will be done. 











— IfiiiiLli ^jjli'iil. ■4i 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Portrait — Hon. William A. Garesche 3 

Portrait — Mrs. Mary A. Garesche, Wife of Ex-United States Consul to 

Martinique 4 

United States Consulate at St. Pierre 19 

Portrait — Monsieur Vincent De Messimy 20 

St. Pierre Harbor and City 27 

Rue Petit Versailles — One of the Principal Streets of St. Pierre 28 

Lighthouse and Wharves at St. Pierre, Showing the Commercial Industry of 

Martinique to he Large 39 

Cathedral at St. Pierre 40 

First Mission on Island of Martinique, St. Pierre 57 

Plantation of Carbet, Martinique 58 

A Native of Martinique — Woman of Wealth 75 

Lower Class Native Woman, St. Pierre 76 

Upper Class Native Woman, St. Pierre 76 

Plantation Owner and One of His Laborers 92 

Public Park, St. Pierre 93 

Native Home, Martinique Ill 

The Late United States Consul at St. Pierre and His Family, All of Whom 

Lost Their Lives in the Great Disaster 112 

White River, St. Pierre, Dividing the Old Town From the New 129 

Steamship Roraima, Destroyed at St. Pierre, May 8, 1902 130 

Divers for Money Around Steamship, St. Pierre Harbor 130 

Harbor of St. Pierre During the Eruption of Mont Pelee 147 

Caught in the Eruption of Mont Pelee, May 8, 1902 148 

Eruption of Mont Pelee as Described by An Eyewitness 165 

Market Place at St. Pierre, Morning of the Eruption 166 

Members of tie First Relief Party Who Visited St. Pierre After Its Destruction. . 183 

The Story of Martinique's Awful Calamity 184 

Destruction of St. Pierre's Inhabitants 201 

Stricken Dead On the Street 202 

Raoul Sarteret (Alias Peleno) 219 

Victor Hugo Street, St. Pierre, in Ruins 220 

Ruins of the American Consulate, St. Pierre 220 

All That Remained of the Convent, St. Pierre 237 

Ruins of the Cathedral of St. Pierre 238 

United States Cruiser "Cincinnati," First Relief Vessel Sent to St. Pierre by 

the United States Government 255 

A Mother's Love 256 

Volcano in Albay, Philippine Islands 273 



Illustrations. 

Page 

Red Cross Society Carrying Relief to Martinique 274 

Burning the Dead Bodies at St. Pierre 291 

Ghoulish Thieves Looting the Bodies of the Dead and Stealing Money from the 

Ruins — St. Pierre 292 

Parliament House, Bridgetown, Island of Barbados 309 

Doing the Family Washing 309 

La Soufriere, Island of St. Vincent 310 

Women Who Coal Ships at St. Vincent 327 

Park, Fort De France 328 

Castries, Island of St. Lucia 377 

Birdseye View of the Town of Charlotte, Island of St. Thomas 377 

Town of St. Kitts, Island of St. Christopher 378 

Street Scene, Bridgetown, Island of Barbados 378 

Women Washing Clothes in the White River, St. Pierre 395 

Sulphur Lake in an Extinct Crater 395 

Women Unloading Coal from Steamer 396 

Road Scene, Island of Barbados 396 

Vesuvius in Eruption — The Volcano that Destroyed Pompeii, Killing Legions. 429 

Petrified Human Bodies found while Excavating the Ruins of Pompeii 430 

Volcano Mayon 447 

Street Scene, Charlotte Amelie 448 

"Morne Rouge 448 

Street Scene, Roseau 448 

Fort De France 448 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

U. S. CONSULATE AT ST. PIERRE. 
The above picture shows the author of this book, Wm. Garesche. and his assist- 
ant, in the building occupied by him as the U. S. consulate. This 
assistant lost his life in the recent eruption. 




Copyright, 1902, by Mrs. Mary A. Garesche. 

MONSIEUR VINCENT DE MESSIMY. 
Native of Martinique, who contributed a special article for this hook. 



COMPLETE STORY 

OF THE 



MARTINIQUE and ST. VINCENT 

HORRORS 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE. 

Forty Thousand Souls Hurled Into Eternity in an Instant — Destruction, 
Devastation and Death — An Avalanche of Fire — Rivers of Molten Lava 
— A Glimpse of the Lower Regions — Falling Buildings Engulf Fleeing 
Men and Women — A Carnival of Horrors — Destruction of Shipping in 
the Harbor — Later Eruptions. 

St. Pierre is as dead as Pompeii. Most of her people lie fathoms 
deep in a tomb made in the twinkling of an eye by the collapse of 
their homes, and sealed forever under tons of boiling mud, ava- 
lanches of scoria and a hurricane of volcanic dust. 

Since the day when Columbus felt the wonderful thrill of the 
discovery of a new world and learned the charm of beautiful 
islands set in a splendid sea, the "West Indies have been a strange 
mingling of peace and war, beauty and desolation, languorous ease 
and bitter destitution. Where one charm has been lacking another 
has beckoned. Nature has smiled for years and at last swept away 
all the fruits of her bounty in an hour of terror. 

THE WEST INDIES A PARADISE. 

Pestilence and earthquake, tornado and war, all these and more 
have disturbed the fond dreams of those who have thought to find 
in the Wtest Indies the earthly paradise which they hoped to find. 

29 



30 The Destruction of St. Pieree, Martinique. 

In a riot of vegetation and under warm, sunny skies, with the soil 
extremely productive and the sea alive with food, the general lot 
of the people of the West Indies has been poverty. At times and 
in certain islands there has been a high degree of prosperity, but 
usually some calamity has burst upon such favored places after 
comparatively long immunity. 

In recent years the almost universal trouble in the West Indies 
has been industrial distress. The sugar markets of the world 
have been so flooded with the bounty-fed product of Germany, 
France, and other European countries that the greatest business 
of the beautiful chain of islands lying between the Atlantic and 
the Caribbean Sea has gone from bad to worse. Capitalists have 
refused to invest their money in modern mills. The laboring pop- 
ulation has been wanting in thrift and intelligence, after the usual 
manner of the tropics. Decay has taken the place of progress. 
The islands have grown poor while leading countries of the world 
have been prospering as they never did before. 

FRENCH ISLANDS PROSPEROUS. 

But the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, with the 
islets pertaining to them, have escaped, in large measure, the hard 
fate of the islands which are British and those which, until 1898, 
belonged to Spain. The large, independent island of Hayti has 
fared worst of all, and the Danish islands have drifted along without 
growth or progress. The French possessions have been excep- 
tionally comfortable because they have benefited by the costly en- 
couragement given their sugar-growers by the French Government. 

In the summer of the brief war between the United States and 
Spain it was noted by the newspaper correspondents and others 
who went from one island to another in the West -Indies that Mar- 
tinique, especially, seemed quite progressive and prosperous. At 
St. Pierre and Fort de France, the principal towns, there was 
evidence of better times than most of the neighboring islands 
knew. It seemed that the 400,000 persons, in round numbers, who 
lived under the flag of France, in the West Indies, were exception- 
ally favored. Now more than one-eighth of them all are dead as 
the result of a single awful outburst of nature's violence. 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 



31 



THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE. 

Martinique, the most southerly of the West Indies group, is a 
picturesque island. It is mountainous and volcanic in every por- 
tion, having, all told, large and small, 400 mountains. Its coast is 
deeply indented by bays, and while the extreme breadth is fifteen 
miles the mean breadth is not more than four miles. It is really the 
product of five or six volcanoes, which at various times in the ages 




A Picturesque Street in St. Pierre Before its Destruction. 

of the past have poured out cubic miles of their contents to become 
the habitation of man. 



MONT PELEE'S WKATK. 

The largest of these is Mont Pelee, a little more than 4,000 
feet in height. Its crater has not been cool within the memory 
of man. In 1851 it underwent a violent eruption, and the vio- 
lence of the subterranean forces shook every part of the island from 
its foundations to its mountain summits. Previous to that, in 



32 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

1727, there was what a historian describes as a "dreadful earth- 
quake, lasting hours, ' ' but he does not state the loss of life, if there 
was any. In 1767, however, an earthquake is briefly recorded that 
resulted in the loss of 16,000 human lives. In 1772 there was an- 
other earthquake that destroyed the island's fortifications. 

In 1839 the then capital, Fort Royal, now known as Fort de 
France, was visited by an earthquake, which destroyed about half 
the town, caused damage throughout the island and killed some 
seven hundred persons. Mont Pelee has had several dead craters. 
One of these is thus described : ' ' The water was perfectly clear. At 
the bottom there was a shallow layer of mud of a yellowish color. 
This mud rested on a mass of pumice stone, mixed in places with fer- 
ruginous sand. The mud itself was a detritus of pumice stone. 
The average depth of the water was about four feet. It was com- 
paratively warm, and had a fresh, dewy taste." 

Mont Pelee, which was cultivated in spots up to a height of 
2,500 feet, was covered to a large extent with dense forests contain^ 
ing a wonderful variety of woods, oaks, cedars, mahogany, silk- 
cotton, ironwood, and palms. 

THE PROMINENT TOWNS. 

St. Pierre was the principal commercial town because of its 
superior anchorage for ships. Fort Royal or Fort de France is 
the capital, although it is a much smaller town. St. Pierre lay along 
a low shore extending inland five or six blocks until it abutted 
against the steep slope of a mountain. It extended along the shore 
for nearly five miles. About the middle of the town was the open- 
ing of a gorge which separated two mountains, both dotted with 
fields of sugar cane, and apparently as solid and as harmless as 
the Green Mountains of Vermont. Both were volcanoes in their 
day, but nature found a more convenient safety valve in Mont 
Pelee, which lies immediately back of these. 

The crater of Mont Pelee had been wearing its "smoke cap" 
since May 3d, but there was nothing until May 5th to indicate that 
there was the slightest danger. On that day a stream of boiling 
lava burst through the top of the crater, plunged into the valley of 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 



the river Blanche, overwhelming the Guerin sugar works and killing 
twenty-three work people and the son of the proprietor. 




Map Showing the Island of Martinique. 



34 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

A commission was appointed by the governor to investigate the 
outbreak, and it returned a reassuring report on "Wednesday even- 
ing. 

STOEY OF ANNIHILATION. 

Thursday morning, May 8, 1902, dawned in splendor on this 
island and its people. The beautiful city of St. Pierre awakened all 
unconscious of the impending calamity which, in a moment, was to 
wipe it out of existence with scarce two score survivors to tell the 
awful tale of its destruction. 

The distance from the volcano to the sea is three miles, and to 
the town is five miles. Several hills and ravines lie between the town 
and the mountain, which, had the explosion occurred in the cone, 
would have partly saved the former. The vast fields of hot lava 
which were boiling in the base of Pelee for years were acted upon by 
an inlet of water. 

This, no doubt, came through a crevice from the sea. The French 
cable company reported nearly a fortnight ago that the sea floor at 
Martinique had dropped over one thousand feet. A break in the 
earth 's crust must have resulted. Through this the sea waves passed. 
Coining in contact with the lava bed, an immense amount of steam 
was generated. 

Soon it became heated to an intensity of five or six tons ' pressure 
to the square inch. It is almost impossible to conceive its latent 
force. The area which confined it could not hold the increasing vol- 
ume. It sought an outlet. The cap over the summit of the crater 
proved too strong. It attacked the weakest side, which was adjacent 
to the town. This side of the mountain was unable to withstand the 
strain and blew out. 

As long as it takes a projectile to shoot through the air and drop 
to earth, just so long it took the fierce, red-hot stream of molten rock 
and sheets of flame to fall upon the town. 

The full story of the annihilation of St. Pierre can never be told 
in detail. Prom the lips of the survivors has come the little the 
world can ever know of it. The most accurate and the fullest has 
come from Harvira Da Ifrile, a native girl, one of the thirty sur- 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 35 

vivors rescued by the French cruiser Suchet. We tell the story 
in her own words, which follow: 

"I was going to vespers at the cathedral when mother asked 
me to go up to my aunt's, who keeps a small pastry shop near the 
cemetery, to deliver her a message. The cemetery, you see, is half 
up the mountain, just where it turns below what we girls used to 
call the ' corkscrew, ' an old crater which had a winding path, down 
which we used to lead visitors to the island. 

"The other girls did not want to go, because they thought I 
could not run up there and be down at the cathedral in time, but 
I hurried. When I got to the 'corkscrew' I saw some puffs of 
smoke coming out of it, and only thinking it was some 'vielle' (aged 
negro) lighting a fire, I did not go to look. I had hardly gone 
more than three steps when I felt a hot wind from the ' corkscrew. ' 
Thinking that something must be on fire, I ran to the top of the 
path, and there I saw the bottom of the pit all red, like boiling, with 
little blue flames shooting up from it. There were two guides lead- 
ing a woman up the path and hurrying as fast as they could run. 
I saw a puff of blue smoke seem to hit the party and they fell as 
if killed. 

SAW LAVA COVER PARTY. 

' ' Horror-stricken, I stayed a minute or two till I saw the boiling 
stuff creep up the side of the ' corkscrew ' until it covered the three 
people who were lying there. I got frightened then and ran down 
the road as fast as I could run, screaming all the way. I couldn't 
see anybody on the streets, and I was too frightened to stop and 
tell anybody. I think they must all have been at the cathedral, as 
it was the vigil of Ascension. 

"Just as I got to the main street I saw this boiling stuff burst 
from the top of the 'corkscrew' and run down the side of the hill. 
It followed the road first, but then, as the stream got bigger, it eat 
up the houses both sides of the road. Then I saw that a boiling red 
river was coming from another part of the hill and cutting off the 
escape of the people who were running out of the houses. 

"I ran as hard as I could to the beach and saw my brother's 
boat with sail set close to the stone wharf where he always kept it. 



36 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

I jumped in it, and just as I did so I saw him run down toward me. 
But lie was too late, and I heard him scream as the stream first 
touched and then swallowed him. I cut the rope that held the boat 
and went to an old cave about a quarter of a mile away, where we 
girls used to play pirates, but before I got there I looked back 
and the whole side of the mountain which was near the town 
seemed to open and boil down on the screaming thousands. I was 
burned a good deal by stones and ashes that came flying about the 
boat, but I got into the cave. 

A GREAT TIDAL WAVE. 

"I remember hearing an awful hiss as the boiling stuff struck 
the sea ; and the cave, which was generally dry, filled up to the top 
with water, and I do not remember any more until they picked me 
up two miles at sea and I found myself on the big steamer." 

The officers of the Suchet say the girl was found unconscious in 
the sailing boat, which was badly charred and drifting helplessly, 
the mast and sail having been snapped off. It is thought the boat 
was too light to be swamped by the tidal wave. 

The twenty-nine others who were saved by the Suchet tell much 
the same story, but they did not see the first signs of the explosion. 
With one exception all the survivors were working close to -the sea 
when the eruption began and had two full minutes to get away from 
the shore before, as the girl said, ' ' the mountain opened its side and 
boiled down" upon the town. 

The awful calamity that destroyed St. Pierre staggers the imag- 
ination. The mind fails to grasp the full meaning of the fact that 
a city of 35,000 people was wiped out of existence with the awful 
suddenness of a lightning stroke. The ruin was as complete as 
it was sudden. The disaster reminds one, in its completeness, of 
the fate of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It takes rank in awful 
destruction of life with the greatest calamities of modern times. 

OTHER PLACES LOST. 

Besides St. Pierre the towns of Le Precheur, three and a half 
miles northwest, and Manceau were entirely destroyed. Le Precheur 
bad a population of between 3,500 and 4,000. Mauceau was smaller. 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 37 

These towns were properly suburbs of St. Pierre, although they 
had separate municipal organizations. They were situated at the 
foot of the mountains, and many of the inhabitants saved themselves 
by taking to the high ground. Their escape was practically shut off 
by the sea of lava. The towns are now desolate. 

SAVED AS BY MIRACLE. 

One of the beautiful little suburbs of St. Pierre was saved. 
Around a promontory at the southern edges nestles the little village 
of Carbet, a pretty town of some four to six thousand people. And 
not one of them was hurt, the town having been screened by a high 
ridge which lay between it and St. Pierre. 

Another eye-witness, first mate of the Roraima, thus describes 
the disaster at St. Pierre: 

SOME FIFTEEN VESSELS DESTROYED. 

"About 7:50 o'clock in the morning on Thursday, without 
warning, there came a sort of whirlwind of steam, boiling mud 
and fire, which suddenly swept the city and the roadstead. There 
were some fifteen vessels anchored in the harbor, including the 
Roraima, the French sailing ship Tamayia, four larger sailing 
ships and five others. All five vessels were immediately destroyed. 
All the boats except the Roraima sank instantly. The Roraima 
had on board the captain, crew and a few passengers. Captain 
Muggah showed great heroism in trying to save the lives of the 
passengers, which he failed in doing, except that of one little girl. 
In doing this, even, he sacrificed his own life. 

"Every house ashore was utterly destroyed and apparently 
burned under the ashes and molten lava. An officer who was sent 
ashore as soon as possible penetrated but a short distance into the 
city. He found only a few walls standing and the streets literally 
paved with corpses. The governor of the island, M. L. Mouttet, 
who had arrived only a few hours before the catasfrophe, was 
killed. Both the English and American consuls with their fam- 
ilies perished. It is certain that no more than thirty or forty out 
of the population of 35,000 could have escaped." 



38 The Destruction op St. Pierre, Martinique. 

HISTORY OUTDONE. 

In the magnitude of the disaster which overwhelmed St. Pierre 
and fairly threatened the whole Island of Martinique, we find his- 
tory outdone. We had read with bated breath of Nature's ancient 
throes, when whole cities were buried beneath the lava flood or en- 
gulfed by the waves of the sea, and had wondered if those who 
penned these descriptions had not brought some of the exaggera- 
tions of mythological romance to color their theme. But now in 
our own day we find volcanic wrath sweeping a whole city into 
eternity, not in the course of days, when repeated warnings have 
given many the opportunity to flee ; not even as a matter of hours, 
with at least a little respite wherein the doomed may take their 
farewell of earth and make such preparation as they may for the 
future— no, it was but the work of minutes for death to garner 
40,000 victims amidst scenes that are described by horror-stricken 
witnesses, preserved by distance from sinking with the ships that 
held them, as "glimpses of hell." The flames of the inferno that 
the old world carries in her dark bosom triumphed like the pas- 
sions of man and bent downward from the summit of Mont Pelee 
to enwrap and consume the sacrificial hetacombs of humanity so 
helpless before the vastness of Nature's wrath. Mist and smoke 
lent the ghastly shadow of an unwonted night to wrap the swift 
and widespread horror within its folds. 

When Pompeii was overcome by the eruption of Vesuvius, 
streams of lava poured down the side of the mountain upon the 
unfortunate town. There was chance for some to escape. When 
St. Pierre, in the little West India Island of Martinique, was over- 
come, it was not by streams of molten earth flowing down the sur- 
face, but by a rain of fire, belched out from Pelee 's height and pre- 
cipitated upon the town as if from the sky. This makes the Mar- 
tinique disaster even more terrible than that of Pompeii. There 
seems to have been no chance for escape at St Pierre, even vessels 
in the harbor, with one exception, being unable to get away from 
the fiery bombardment, from above. The people were pelted with 
fire ; they were, almost in an instant, surrounded by a hail of molten 
matter. Those who had taken refuge in the houses no doubt suf- 




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Copyright, 1902, by Mrs. Mary A. Garesche. 

CATHEDRAL AT ST. PIERRE. 

This church had the largest number of communicants of any on the island. 

Three thousand people fled here for safety, but all were destroyed. 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 



41 



fered intensely before death relieved them ; any who may have been 
outside are not likely to have survived long after the storm of fire 
commenced. 

GREATEST CALAMITY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. 

The disaster at Martinique easily ranks as the greatest calam- 
ity in the history of the western hemisphere. 




Shipping of Sugar in St. Pierre Before its Destruction. 



In the presence of such a catastrophe one cannot but feel that 
there are elemental forces in Nature beyond the control of man. 
Science has made great strides, and we are wont to boast of her 
achievements. But, as Horatio said, there are many things in 
Heaven and on earth that we know not of, and earthquakes and 
volcanoes are among them. 
. The first ship to perish in the disaster was the cable repair ship 



42 The Destruction op St. Pierre, Martinique. 

Grappler, belonging to the West India and Panama Telegraph 
Company of London. The steamer Roddam escaped destruction by 
the fact that she had on a full pressure of steam and was able to run 
out of the harbor. When entering the harbor of St. Thomas some 
hours later she carried the news of the disaster. The vessel itself 
bore silent witness to the terrible calamity. It was battered by 
pieces of white hot lava, her rigging was burned off, her captain 
severely burned, and seventeen of her crew were dead. The purser 
and ten of the crew lost their lives by jumping overboard while in 
the harbor at St. Pierre. 

HEROIC CAPTAIN. 

When the full story of the St. Pierre disaster shall have been 
told there will, no doubt, be many names added to the role of 
heroes. Already one such looms up from the smoke and destruc- 
tion of the scene — the captain of the Roddam. He had cast 
anchor at St. Pierre just before the burst of fire that destroyed 
the place. The agent had come out to consult with him and was 
talking with him from a small boat when the shower of fire began. 
That was literally a rain of flame; it burned men to death on the 
deck and obliterated everything on the ship that fire and stones 
could destroy. 

That was an emergency of a kind for which no sea captain was 
ever trained, but the captain of the Roddam was equal to it. His 
English brain asserted itself, and in that awful moment he acted 
as coolly as though such a storm of fire were a common thing in 
his experience. The anchor was cast off on his order and to the 
engine-room a message was quickly sent directing the engineer to 
back the engine. 

Slowly the vessel, torn and dismantled, with dying men writh- 
ing upon her deck, began to creep away, the captain holding the 
wheel to guide her in her effort to escape from the hail of death. 
The burning cinders rained upon him, blistering his hands, but 
he did not flinch. There was refuge below from the fire that was 
beating upon the exposed deck, but he did not stir. Though he 
was in danger of being incinerated like the members of the crew 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 43 

that lay about the deck, he held fast to the wheel and guided 
the vessel away from the awful scene. 

VESSELS LOST. 

The following is as complete a list of the vessels lost in the har- 
bor of St. Pierre, Martinique, by the eruption of Mont Pelee, as can 
be obtained : 

Albanese, Italian bark, Captain Albanese, 327 tons ; sailed from 
Marseilles on February 20, arrived at St. Pierre on April 5 ; 
$30,000. 

Anna E. J. Morse, American schooner, 651 tons, Captain Crock- 
er; sailed from Philadelphia March 24, arrived at St. Pierre April 
24, bound for Port of Spain and New York; $25,000. 

Marie Helene, French bark, Captain Arnaud, 344 tons; sailed 
from Bordeaux April 10, bound for Martinique, sighted off Point 
de Grave April 14; $30,000. 

L. W. Norton, British bark, Captain Parks, 464 tons; sailed 
from New York April 12, arrived at St. Pierre April 30; $35,000. 

Misti, French bark, Captain Grado, 312 tons; sailed from Bor- 
deaux February 20, arrived at St. Pierre April 4 ; $10,000. 

Nord America, Italian bark, Captain Cilento, 558 tons ; sailed 
from Marseilles February 6, arrived at St. Pierre April 7 ; $7,500. 

Orsolina, Italian bark, Captain Leboff, 590 tons; sailed from 
Barbados April 1 ; $30,000. 

Peppo, Italian bark. Captain Lariello, 595 tons; sailed from 
Havre March 2, arrived at St. Pierre April 8 ; $12,000. 

Roraima, British steamship, Captain Muggah, 1,764 tons; 
sailed from New York April 26, arrived at St. Pierre and was de- 
stroyed ; vessel, $75,000 ; cargo, $150,000 ; crew, 35 ; 8 saved. 

Sacro Cuore, Italian bark, Captain Easano, 558 tons; sailed 
from Marseilles March 13, bound for St. Pierre ; $35,000. 

Smart, Norwegian bark, Captain Aasen, 384 tons; sailed from 
Barbados January 20, bound for St. Pierre, and may have been 
destroyed there; $12,000. 

Taiwan, Italian bark, Captain Schiaffino, 307 tons; sailed from 
Marseilles April 18, bound for St. Pierre, and may have been de- 
stroyed there; $40,000, 



44 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

Teresa Lo Vico, Italian bark, Captain Ferrara, 563 tons ; sailed 
from Havre February 12, arrived at St. Pierre April 3 ; $15,000. 

Besides the above there were lost the Leonardi, in command of 
Captain Scarpati; Dag, Captain Mathiasen; Adelaide, Captain 
Garel; Clemintina, Captain Mancino; Concettino, Captain Cacau; 
Sevre, Captain Callier. 

Total value of vessels lost, not including the Grappler, $531,000. 

The streams of fire that destroyed St. Pierre came from the 
side of the mountain, which opened and closed, leaving large and 
very deep crevices near Macuba and Grand Riviere. The sea dur- 
ing the catastrophe withdrew several hundred feet, coming back 
steaming with fury. The officers in charge of a boat making sound- 
ings off the island report a depth of 4,000 feet where formerly it 
was only 600 to the bottom. Pumice stone and ashes covered the 
sea for many miles. 

WORK OF THE SUCHET. 

During the day following the eruption the heat in the vicinity 
of St. Pierre was so intense and the stream of flowing lava was so 
unremitting that it was impossible to approach the town. As 
evening came on the French cruiser Suchet, after a heroic bat- 
tle with the heat, suffocation and sulphur fumes, succeeded in 
making a dash toward the shore, nearing the land enough for her 
to take off the survivors of the disaster, all of whom were horribly 
burned and mutilated. 

They were unable, however, to penetrate into the city. 

From the wharf where they landed a large number of dead 
bodies could be seen. The royal mail steamer Esk attempted to 
reach St. Pierre, but was unable to do so, as the city was blazing. 
She sent a boat ashore, but the crew did not see a living soul. The 
darkness, where unrelieved by the burning city, was impenetrable. 

For two days after the eruption the sea was still a boiling cal- 
dron, and about St. Pierre for a distance of eight miles landward 
the intense heat from the volcano and the bed of hot ashes ren- 
dered it impossible to enter the town by land. But as approach 
became possible, the work of searching for friends began. Then 
it was that the extent of the calamity became known to the world. 



The Destruction of St. Pierke, Martinique. 45 

IN MONILLAGE, THE LOWER TOWN. 

The town was a mass of indescribable ruins, which bore a strik- 
ing resemblance to those of Pompeii. In the lower part of the 
town, called the Monillage, the outlines of the streets could be de- 
termined and here and there were walls of houses, which still stood 
erect but battered and crushed on all sides. Amid the hopeless 
labyrinth of debris one was able to pick out the sites of the club, 
the bank, the bourse, the telegraph office and the principal shops. 

Everywhere was the same scene of utter desolation and death. 
At the police station there was a large pile of bodies lying face 
downward as if the victims had fallen while in the act of running 
to escape the fate impending over them. 

The fort and central quarters of the town were razed to the 
ground and were replaced by beds of hot cinders. The iron grille 
work gate of the government offices was alone standing. There was 
no trace of the streets. Huge heaps of smoking ashes were to be 
seen on all sides. 

BODIES HORRIBLY MUTILATED. 

At the landing place some burned and ruined walls indicated the 
spot where the Custom House formerly stood, and traces of the 
larger shops could be seen. In that neighborhood hundreds of 
corpses were found lying in all kinds of attitudes, showing that the 
victims had met death as if by a lightning stroke. Every vestige of 
clothing was burned away from the charred bodies, and in many 
cases the abdomens had been burst open by the intense heat. Curi- 
ously enough, the features of the dead were generally calm and re- 
poseful, though in some cases terrible fright and agony were de- 
picted. Grim piles of bodies were stacked everywhere, showing that 
death had stricken them while the crowds were vainly seeking escape 
from the fiery deluge. On one spot a group of nine children were 
found locked in each other's arms. 

Most grewsome sights were at every side. The smoking waste 
of St. Pierre contained 30,000 corpses; most of these were naked 
and frightfully mutilated, while from the rapid decomposition of 



4G The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

the bodies arose a terrible stench. On May 13 Mont Pelee was still 
in a state of eruption, but the winds were southerly and the smoke 
and ashes thrown out bore away to the north. This somewhat 
relieved the working force and made the examination of the ruins 
more possible. 

A corresponent of the New York Sun made a trip through the 
ruined city and through the adjacent villages with the searching- 
party organized by Signor Paravicino, the Italian consul at Bar- 
bados, whose daughter was visiting there and who perished in 
the disaster. "When the body was recovered there was some doubt 
at first concerning the identity, but this was set at rest by relatives 
and friends identifying the clothing. This was an example of 
the curious effects of the fire that swept over the town, bodies 
being burned beyond all recognition, but clothing of flimsy mate- 
rial being little damaged. 

CURIOUS FREAKS OF FORCE. 

Other incidents showing the curious freaks of the destructive 
forces are related by this correspondent, who says: To the stupe- 
faction of those familiar with the spot, the town clock remained 
intact, as if to show the precise moment of the disaster, marking 
7:50, and this sinister indication deeply affected all who saw it. 
On the other hand, the telegraph office and its contents were burned. 
Some fragments of the apparatus were thrown a hundred yards. 
On the site where once stood a beautiful cathedral, stands now 
only a portion of its tower. The large bell lies in the center of 
the ruins. The greater part of the altar was destroyed, but the 
golden chalices were undamaged. In one large chalice was the 
ashes of what had been the Host. A small chalice remained full 
of wafers, not one of which was even scorched. 

A large statue of the Virgin on the hill above St. Pierre was 
hurled yards distant from its base. 

This, together with the fact that huge trees were torn up by their 
roots and laid flat, scarce one being left standing, and other indica- 
tions show that the wave of fire must have passed over this section 
of the island at extreme hurricane velocity. 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 47 

The only living thing seen by him in this district was an ox, 
thin as a skeleton. While the body of Signorina Paravieino was 
being prepared for removal this animal stalked slowly through the 
wreckage to the beach, where it drank sea water and then went 
back up the hillside. 

An inhabitant of Morne Rouge, a town of 600 inhabitants, three 
miles from St. Pierre, who was watching the volcano at the 
moment of the catastrophe, says that there were seven luminous 
points on the volcano's sides just before it burst. 

He says that all about him when the explosion came there was 
a terrible suction of air, which seemed to be dragging him irre- 
sistibly toward the mountain in spite of all his resistance. The 
volcano then emitted a sheet of flame which swept down toward St. 
Pierre. There was no sharp, distinct roar of explosion as when a 
great cannon is fired, but only awful jarring rumblings. 

He thinks that the entire outburst that did all the work of 
havoc did not last more than thirty seconds. 

Then there was complete darkness for ten minutes, caused by 
the dense volumes of sulphurous smoke and clouds of dust and 
shattered rocks, by which the entire country all about St. Pierre 
was turned into a chaotic waste. All the trees were either torn 
up by the roots or snapped off and lie level with the ground. 

A few trunks of trees still standing show that the wave of fire 
stopped about two hundred metres from the suburb of Carbet. 
The houses are almost all destroyed in that place. 

SUFFOCATED BY GAS. 

It is supposed that an enormous puff of gas produced a great 
atmospheric pressure. 

The formation of sulphuretted hydrogen gas doubtless caused 
thousands to die of sheer suffocation before the fire itself reached 
them. This explains the condition of the bodies, which are cov- 
ered with superficial swellings and superficial burns caused by the 
great cloud of fire which followed the first gust of gas from the 
volcano. 

After this there came a shower of stones, some as large as 



48 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

apples and consisting of pumice stone. Certain bodies showed the 
marks of wounds produced by this awful hail of rocks. 

All the dead were covered by a layer of ashes ranging in depth 
from a few inches to a foot or more. 

STORY OF A PRISONER. 

Raoul Sarteret, a prisoner who was found semi-suffocated but 
still alive in the dungeon of the city prison of St. Pierre, recovered 
sufficiently to describe what he could see of the eruption and the de- 
struction of the town from the small grated window which was the 
only opening in his cell. His story is as follows: 

"I was just eating my breakfast that morning," he said, "when 
the rumbling which I had heard beneath my cell for three or four 
days previously stopped suddenly. I do not know why, but I felt 
frightened, as though something fearful were to happen. Then 
the whole place became black, a sort of violet black, and I heard 
screams all through the prison. 

"I could not help feeling that there was a disaster near and I 
screamed to the jailers to come and unlock my cell, but I could 
not make any one hear. The little window in my cell looked out 
on the back of the convent, where 200 girls and a large number of 
nuns frequently stayed, but there was a high wall between my cell 
and the convent. 

' ' The violet darkness grew blacker and blacker until it was al- 
most as dark as though it were night, and then suddenly the whole 
place was lighted up with a curious glow, sometimes red, sometimes 
green, but generally red. I put my little table against the cell 
window and, hanging on by the bars, attempted to look out, but 
could not see anything because of the brick wall in front of me. 

"While I looked, however, a huge red-hot stone crashed down 
just in front of my window, right on the top of the wall, knocking 
it down. The heat from this stone was most intense and made my 
post at the window fearful to endure, but the sight was such that 
I could not turn away. 

' ' Right in front of me where the brick wall had stood I saw the 
large convent, and I could see that molten matter had come down 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 49 

the hill and had run into the grounds of the convent. I realized 
then that there must have been an eruption of Mont Pelee. To 
my horror I discovered that the lava had completely encircled the 
convent with its first rush and that all the girls and sisters who 
were in the building were doomed. 

" While I looked I saw another stone, even larger than the one 
which had fallen near my cell window and broken down the wall, 
strike on the convent roof and crash through its three stories, evi- 
dently plunging through to the ground. I had not seen any of the 
sisters until that time, and I suppose they had depended for safety 
on the building, seeking shelter from the rain of hot ashes which I 
could see falling. 

DESTRUCTION" OF THE CONVENT. 

"In an instant after this huge stone crashed through I saw 
the poor girls flocking out in the utmost terror. Their actions 
looked as though they were screaming in an agony of fright, but 
I could not hear a sound owing to the hissing of the lava and the 
roar of the volcanic discharge. As the girls came running out I 
saw that they carried with them bodies of those who had been in- 
jured by the crashing of the stone through the building. Some 
they carried out were dead, while I could see that others were only 
injured. 

. "The sisters came running out, too, bringing appliances for 
helping the injured, but those who had hurried out of the building- 
were driven in again by the blinding ashes and the fumes which I 
could see rise from the lava. 

"A pit had been dug on the inside of the wall in order that 
none of the girls should be able to climb up from the inside, and 
this acted as a sort of moat, in which the lava floated, and thus 
made a complete circle round the convent, rendering escape im- 
possible, even if it had been possible to live in the rain of hot 
stones and ashes from the mountain. 

"Again as I looked I saw another stone fall upon the building, 
and this time many more of the girls rushed out. This time there 
were far fewer. A party of them broke down one of the doors, and 



50 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

holding this over their heads they tried to run for the gate, but 
were amazed to find their escape cut off by the river of lava. 

' ' The lava gradually rose and rose, and I could see the huddled 
group of girls growing smaller and smaller, as first one and then 
others succumbed to the poisonous fumes and the fearful heat of 
the surrounding lava. And as the group got smaller the lava 
rose and rose, until there was but a small piece of land around the 
building where the ground was not a heaving, swelling mass of 
molten matter. 

' ' Then with one great burst, it seemed to me, a fresh stream of 
lava flowed into the moat and overswept the building and the little 
island on which the girls were standing a moment before. I turned 
away my eyes in horror, and when next I looked nothing was to be 
seen of the convent but a heap of calcined stone, and here and there 
the blackened corpses of those who but a few moments before had 
been full of life and hope. 

' ' I could not see what was happening in the town for the reason 
that the window of my cell was so small and besides there was a 
pall of blackness over all the scene. I could, however, see here 
and there as the smoke lifted, that the lava had extended clear down 
to the sea and that but a few of the larger buildings had success- 
fully withstood the attack of the volcanic eruption. 

"While I was looking from my cell window, my eyes almost 
seared out of my head by the heat pouring through the narrow 
orifice, I noticed a thin blue smoke curl along the ground, and, 
caught by some eddying gust of wind, the fumes struck straight 
into my cell window and I remember no more." 

STORY OF ANOTHER EYE-WITNESS. 

Another interesting story of the fury of the volcanic eruption 
is told by M. Albert, owner and manager of the Lagarrane estate 
near St. Pierre, in which he tells cf his marvelous escape with his 
family from the terrible death that swept St. Pierre out of exist- 
ence. He says: 

"Mont Pelee had given warning of the destruction that was to 
come, but we who had looked upon the volcano as harmless did not 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 51 

believe that it would do more than spout fire and steam, as it bad 
done on other occasions. It was a little before 8 o'clock on the 
morning of May 8 that the end came. 

' ' I was in one of the fields of my estate when the ground trem- 
bled under my feet, not as it does when the earth quakes, but as 
though a terrible struggle was going on within the mountain. A 
terror came upon me, but I could not explain my fear. 

"As I stood still, Mont Pelee seemed to shudder and a moaning 
sound issued from its crater. It was quite dark, the sun being- 
obscured by ashes and fine volcanic dust. The air was dead about 
me, so dead that the floating dust seemingly was not disturbed. 

"Then there was a rending, crashing, grinding noise, which I 
can only describe as sounding as though every bit of machinery in 
the world had suddenly broken down. It was deafening, and the 
flash of light that accompanied it was blinding, more so than any 
lightning I have ever seen. 

' ' It was like a terrible hurricane, and where a fraction of a sec- 
ond before there had been a perfect calm I felt myself drawn into a 
vortex and I had to brace myself firmly. It was like a great express 
train rushing by, and I was drawn by its force. 

LEVELED TREES. 

"The mysterious force leveled a row of strong trees, tearing 
them up by the roots and leaving bare a space of ground fifteen 
yards wide and more than one hundred yards long. 

"Transfixed I stood, not knowing in what direction to flee. I 
looked toward Mont Pelee, and above its apex formed a great black 
cloud which reached high in the air. It literally fell upon the city 
of St. Pierre. It moved with a rapidity that made it impossible for 
anything to escape it. 

"From the cloud came explosions that sounded as though all 
of the navies of the world were in titanic combat. Lightning played 
in and out in broad forks, the result being that intense darkness 
was followed by light that seemed to be of magnifying power. 

1 ' That St. Pierre was doomed I knew, but I was prevented from 
seeing the destruction by a spur of the hill that shut off the view 
of the city. 



52 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

"It is impossible for me to tell liow long I stood there inert. 
Probably it was only a few seconds, bnt so vivid were my impres- 
sions that it now seems as though I stood as a spectator for many 
minutes. 

' ' When I recovered possession of my senses I ran to my house 
and collected the members of the family, all of whom were panic- 
stricken. I hurried them to the seashore, where we boarded a small 
steamship, in which we made the trip in safety to Fort de France. 

1 ' I know that there was no flame in the first wave that was sent 
down upon St. Pierre. It was a heavy gas, like firedamp, and it 
must have asphyxiated the inhabitants before they were touched 
by the fire, which quickly followed. As we drew out to sea in the 
small steamship Mont Pelee was in the throes of a terrible convul- 
sion. New craters seemed to be opening all about the summit and 
lava was flowing in broad streams in every direction. My estate 
was ruined while we were still in sight of it. 

"Many women who have lived in St. Pierre escaped only to 
know that they were left widowed and childless. This is because 
many of the wealthier men sent their wives away, while they 
remained in St. Pierre to attend to their business affairs." 

RECALLS LORD LYTTON'S DESCRIPTION OF VESUVIUS. 

The Martinique catastrophe recalls Bulwer-Lytton 's descrip- 
tion of the destruction of Pompeii in his ' ' Last Days of Pompeii, ' ' 
to which is given renewed interest by the recent disaster of St. 
Pierre. The author's words are as follows: 

"The cloud which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the 
day had now settled into a solid and impenetrable mass. It resem- 
bled less even the thickest gloom of a night in the open air than the 
close and blind darkness of some narrow room. But in proportion 
as the blackness gathered did the lightnings around Vesuvius 
increase in the vivid and searching glare. 

"Nor was their horrible beauty confined to the usual flashes of 
fire; no rainbow ever rivaled their varying and prodigal dyes; 
now brightly blue as the most azure depth of a southern sky ; now 
a lurid and snakelike green, darting restlessly to and fro as the 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 53 

folds of an enormous serpent ; now of a lurid and intolerable crim- 
son, gushing forth through the columns of smoke far and wide, and 
lighting up the whole city from arch to arch, then suddenly dying 
into a sickly paleness, like the ghost of their own life. 

"In the pauses of the showers Gan heard the rumbling of the 
earth beneath and the roaring waves of the tortured sea, the grind- 
ing and hissing murmurs of the escaping gases through the chasms 
of the distant mountain. Sometimes the cloud appeared to break 
from its solid mass, and, by the lightning, to assume quaint and 
vast mimicries of human or of monster shape, striding across the 
gloom, hurtling one upon the other, and vanishing swiftly into the 
abyss of shade, so that, to the e}^es and fancies of the affrighted wan- 
derers, the unsubstantial vapors were as the bodily forms of gigan- 
tic foes— the agents of terror and of death. 

ASHES KNEE DEEP. 

".The ashes in many places were already knee deep, and the 
boiling showers which came from the steaming breath of the vol- 
cano forced their way into the houses, bearing with them a strong 
and suffocating vapor. Immense fragments of rock, hurled upon 
the house roofs, bore along the streets masses of confined ruin. 

"The winds and showers came to a sudden pause; the atmos- 
phere was profoundly stale ; the mountain seemed at rest, gather- 
ing, perhaps, fresh fury for its next burst. * * * Suddenly, as 
he spoke, the place became lighted with an intense and lurid glow. 
Bright and gigantic through the darkness which closed around it, 
like the walls of hell, the mountain shone— a pile of fire. The sum- 
mit seemed riven in two, or above the surface there seemed to rise 
two monster shapes, each confronting each, as demons contending 
for a world. These were of one deep blood-red hue of fire, which 
lighted up the whole atmosphere, far and wide, but below the nether 
part of the mountain was still dark and shrouded, save in three 
places, adown which flamed serpentine and irregular rivers of the 
molten lava. 

"Darkly red through the profound gloom of their banks they 
flowed slowly on as toward the devoted city. Over the broadest 



54 The Destruction or St. Pierre, Martinique. 

there seemed to spring a cragged and stupendous arch, from which, 
as from the jaws of hell, gushed the source of sudden disasters, 
and through the stilled air was heard the rattling of the fragments 
of rock, hurtling one upon another as they were borne down the 
fiery cataracts— darkening for one instant the spot where they fell, 
and suffused the next in the burnished hues of the flood along 
which they floated. 

' ' Glaucus turned in gratitude and caught lone once more in his 
arms and fled along the street, that was yet intensely luminous. 
But suddenly a duller shade fell over the air. Instinctively he 
turned to the mountain, and, behold ! one of the two gigantic crests 
into which the summit had been divided rocked and wavered to 
and fro, and then with a sound, the mightiness of which no lan- 
guage can describe, it fell from its burning base and rushed, an 
avalanche of fire, down the side of the mountain. At the same 
instant gushed forth a volume of blackest smoke, rolling on over 
air, sea and earth. Another, and another, and another shower of 
ashes, far more profuse than before, scattered fresh desolation 
along the streets. Darkness once more wrapped them as a veil. 

"The sudden illumination, the bursts of the floods of lava and 
the earthquake, which we have already described, chanced when 
Sallust and his party had just gained the direct path leading from 
the city to the port, and here they were arrested by an immense 
throng— more than half the population of the city. They spread 
along the field without the walls, uncertain whither to fly. The sea 
had retired far from shore and they who had fled to it had been so 
terrified by the agitation and preternatural shrinking of the ele- 
ment, the gasping forms of the uncouth sea, which the waves had 
left upon the sand, and by the sound of the huge stones cast from 
the mountain into the deep, that they had returned again to the 
land, as presenting the less frightful aspect of the two." 

And thus, in this recent day, St. Pierre, beautiful, gay, thought- 
less St. Pierre, was blotted out in one moment by that green-clad 
Mont Pelee that seemed merely to serve as a marvelous background 
for the sunlit, red-tiled houses of the town ! 

St. Pierre, that had laughed through hurricane and pestilence; 
wliere even the horrible smallpox plague failed to stop the grand 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 55 

carnival of Mardi Gras— -those doomed to die rising from their 
beds, hiding the hideous ravages of the disease behind their masks, 
to join in the wild dances and delirious mummery of the day. 

"Nothing but glowing lava and flames everywhere, without a 
sign of life. ' ' Never, since Pompeii fell, has there been such sud- 
den desolation on such care-free people. 

SUMMARY OF MARTINIQUE. 

Discovered by Columbus, 1502. 

Settled by French, 1635. 

The island of Martinique is 1,710 miles from New York. 

It is 50 miles from St. Lucia. 

It is about 95 miles north of St. Vincent, now in eruption. 

Dominica is 60 miles from St. Pierre. Guadeloupe is eight hours 
away. 

St. Thomas is a day 's sail distant. St. Kitts and Antigua twelve 
hours. 

A fast steamer could touch at all the islands within thirty hours. 

From the top of Mount Misery, in St. Kitts, half a dozen of the 
islands can be seen. 

Mont Pelee is 4,430 feet high. 

Martinique had a population of 189,599 at last census. 

It contains about 80,000 acres. 

Total area 380 square miles. 

Rainfall, 150 inches annually. 

St. Pierre had a population of 35,000. 

St. Pierre had 20 sugar factories and 118 rum distilleries. 

It is 45 miles long and 15 miles wide at its widest point. 

Fort de France, the capital, has a population of 17,274 people. 

The trip from St. Pierre to Fort de France takes just the time of 
a sail from Washington to River View. 

There are 1,360 soldiers in Martinique. 

There are 6,000 more women on the island of Martinique than 
there are men. 

French is the official language. 

Barbados is 100 miles from Martinique. 



56 The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 

St. Pierre is about 10 miles from Fort de France. 
St. Pierre is about 5 miles from Mont Pelee. 

WHY MONT PELEE EXPLODED. 

We give below Prof. Verrill's views on the subject. He says: 

The fearful loss of life at Martinique and the suddenness of the 
destruction seem mysterious to most people, and are scarcely to be 
accounted for by any of the text books relating to volcanic phe- 
nomena. 

But yet there appears to be a simple and scientific explanation 
of all that occurred there in those few fearful minutes. All geol- 
ogists admit that the common cause of violent volcanic eruptions is 
the generation of steam at enormously high pressure by water com- 
ing in contact with very hot lava at great depths, and that the gases 
and ■ ' smoke ' ' ejected are chiefly steam and cinders or ashes. 

But the surviving eye witnesses of the volcanic eruption at Mar- 
tinique speak of the "tornado of fire" which suddenly swept over 
the city and killed most of the people and instantly set on fire the 
buildings and shipping ; and also of the suffocating vapors that im- 
mediately killed most of those that escaped the outburst of flame. 
This fire can be fully explained by the dissociation of the oxygen 
and hydrogen of the water that came in sudden contact with intense- 
ly heated lava within the volcano. 

» As it was probably sea water, the chlorine of the salt would also 
be separated as a gas. These gases, escaping with great violence 
and in vast volumes, mixed with steam, 'would eject the hot stones 
and cinders and then instantaneously explode in the open air, caus- 
ing the intensely violent outburst of hot flames that swept down the 
mountain and over the town, for such a mixture of oxygen and hy- 
drogen is among the most explosive of all known gases, and it pro- 
duces an intense heat. 

If chlorine were present, as was doubtless the case, it would also 
form an explosive mixture with the hydrogen, generating hydro- 
chloric acid gas. This is an exceedingly suffocating gas— deadly 
if inhaled in any considerable amount. It is always produced when 
sea water comes in contact with highly heated lava deep within the 
crater of volcanoes near the sea. 




a S 
. o 

u H 



3 H 



The Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique. 59 

The burned condition in which most of the dead and wounded 
we're found, and the evidences of suffocation in other cases, prove 
conclusively that this separation and explosive reunion of the ele- 
ments of sea water were the immediate causes of the ' ' whirlwind of 
flame ' ' and the sudden destruction of life. The vast explosive flame 
doubtless reached the city before the stones that were ejected by the 
same outburst of the gases could fall there. The same explosion of 
gases would also explain the mechanical violence observed in the 
ruins. 

The writer, in teaching geology during many years, has always 
applied this explanation to other violent volcanic eruptions, like that 
of Krakatoa, in opposition to the text books, but the eruption at Mar- 
tinique proves its correctness most completely. At Krakatoa no eye 
witnesses were left alive to tell what happened. 

A similar explosive effect, on a small scale, is produced when a 
small quantity of water is thrown upon the very hot coals in a fur- 
nace. The hydrogen separates from the oxygen of the water and 
then explodes with an outburst of hot flames. Instances have oc- 
curred when terrible explosions have been produced by water acci- 
dentally getting into blast furnaces and other very hot furnaces. 

In all such cases great volumes of hydrogen are liberated, and 
mixing with the air explode very violently, with the production of 
very hot flames. In a volcano the hot lava and the water are in un- 
limited quantities and under enormous pressures, far beyond any 
that can be produced artificially. 

A. E. Verrill. 

Yale University, New Haven, May 24, 1902. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE— ITS HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, VEGE- 
TATION AND INDUSTRIES. 

The Most Picturesque of the West Indian Isles — Discovered by Columbus — 
Peculiar in Topography — Famous as the Home of Josephine— Startling 1 
Record of Great Disasters in the Island — Commercial Interests of the 
Island. 

Many things combine to make the Island of Martinique, where 
the St. Pierre disaster occurred, more beautiful and more romantic- 
ally interesting than any other of the West Indian islands. Its 
mountain scenery is more poetically beautiful, its towns more strik- 
ingly picturesque in architecture, and its population more varied 
and beautiful in color and type than anywhere else among the Wind- 
ward islands. (See page 8.) 

It is one of the West India group, making one of a chain of 
islands called the Lesser Antilles. It lies south of Dominica, and 
north of Saint Lucia, at about the center of the true Caribbees, a 
crescent of islands stretching north and south and enclosing on the 
east the Caribbean Sea. There are eleven islands in the group, the 
intervening distances between them being about thirty miles. Some 
are Danish, some English and some French, Martinique being one 
of the finest of the French possessions. The French colonies in 
America, as is well known, consist of Martinique and Guadeloupe, 
with their adjacent islands forming a part of the chain of small 
islands which stretches in a semi-circle southeastwardly from Porto 
Rico almost to the coast of South America. On the mainland of 
South America near the southern terminus of this semi-circle of 
islands just mentioned is another colony of France, French Guiana, 
while further north, just off the southern coast of Newfoundland, is 
the remainder of French colonial America, the islands of St, Pierre 
and Miquelon. At the time of the recent disaster it was one of the 
most densely populated regions of the world. In 1894, the time of 
the last official census, there were 189,599 people upon it, and the 

60 



The Island of Maetinique. 61 

number had increased rather than decreased since then. Of this 
number about 5,000 are laborers brought from India and over 5,000 
laborers from Africa ; also about 500 Chinese immigrants. The re- 
mainder of the population is largely native Negroes, the white popu- 
lation numbering in all about 10,000. A large share of the interior 
of the island has never been brought under cultivation, although it 
lias been occupied by the French almost constantly since 1635, a 
period of 266 years, the only interruption in French control being 
the period from 1794 to 1802, when the island was held by the Brit- 
ish. Slavery existed until 1848, when it was abolished in this as well 
as other French colonies. Notwithstanding the fact that a large part 
of its interior has never been brought under cultivation, this great 
population, averaging 500 people to the square mile, was really even 
more closely packed than the figures show, for the central parts of 
the island are mountainous, and in many places the virgin forests 
still stand. The arable lands have to support the entire population. 
The French-born number but 1,307. This is exclusive of the French 
garrison at Fort St. Louis, of the town of Fort de France, the sol- 
diers numbering 1,360. 

DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

When Columbus discovered the island, June 15, 1502, it was 
inhabited by the Caribs, an interesting tribe of Indians, afterwards 
almost exterminated. Though it was discovered at this early date, 
it remained in disputed possession of the Caribs, saving a small 
French settlement made at St. Pierre in 1635. 

In 1635, Esnambuc, a Norman captain, formally took possession 
of Martinique, which the French government purchased from his 
descendants, incorporating it as a royal colony in 1764. 

Martinique forms a striking picture from the sea. In the north 
is a group of volcanic mountains. There is a similar group to the 
south. Between these is a line of lower heights, culminating in the 
noted Mont Pelee, towering 4,430 feet above the sea. The entire 
island, formerly called Madiana, is of volcanic formation and is 
known as one of the " wet "islands, owing to the amount of rain 
which annually fails— something like 150 inches. Its elimate is 



62 The Island of Maktinique. 

hot and hurricanes and earthquakes are not infrequent. The island 
has about 80,000 acres of very fertile land under cultivation. The 
total area is about 380 square miles. 

Mont Pelee had deep and precipitous ravines, but they were 
not noticeable to the eye because of the beautiful drapery of the 
forest. From the sides of Pelee the visitor and habitant gazed at 
the inner Caribbean Sea and then into the vast sweep of the rolling 
Atlantic. 

The whole area of the island is mountainous. Besides Mont 
Pelee, there are, further south and about midway of the oval, the 
three crests of Courbet, and all along the great ridge are the black 
and ragged cones of old volcanoes. 

In the section south of the deep bay there are two less elevated 
and more irregular ridges, one running southeast and terminating 
in the Piton Vauclin, and the other extending westward and pre- 
senting to view on the coast Monts Caraibe and Constant. 

The mountainous interior is torn and gashed with ancient earth- 
quake upheavals, and there are perpendicular cliffs, deep clefts and 
gorges, black holes filled with water, and swift torrents dashing 
over precipices and falling into caverns— in a word, all the fantas- 
tic savagery of volcanic scenery, but the whole covered with the 
rich verdure of the tropics. 

THE HARBOR OF ST. PIERRE. 

The principal city of Martinique was St. Pierre (pronounced 
San-Pe-Air), on the west coast of the island, near its northern 
end. It had a population of about 35,000. It had no harbor, only 
a slight depression in the shore, and no protection from the west, 
nor much from the north and south. 

The city extended for a long distance along the shore. It had 
straight, narrow streets paved with stone blocks or macadam, with 
good sidewalks well covered with awnings. Up the slope to the 
mountain from the open harbor the streets of the city were cut in 
the rock. Sometimes they were so steep that instead of a roadway 
they were steps in the hillside, and always from the vantage point 
of a street crossing one could look down into the harbor over the 



The Island of Martinique. 63 

roofs of the houses built but a block below. The buildings were 
all two stories high, usually of masonry, and sometimes bound 
with iron in view of earthquakes. A primitive street railway ran 
through the principal thoroughfare. There were some well-stocked 
stores, but prices of everything were high, and the people, one 
and all, were shrewd in dealing with strangers. On the whole, for 
a tropical city of mostly colored population, the place bore evidence 
of considerable business activity. Except for the heat and the color 
of the inhabitants, one could quite fancy himself in a provincial 
city of old France. 

There were no buildings of any architectural pretension. Even 
the cathedral, which, with its two white steeples, a conspicuous 
object seen from the sea, was very commonplace when seen from 
within. It is rather noticeable in all the West India islands that 
the fine arts have been little developed. 

About 20 miles down the coast from St. Pierre is the smaller 
city, but capital of the island, Fort de France. It was formerly 
called Fort Royal, no doubt from its adjacent extensive fortifica- 
tion, but on the abolition of royalty in France its name was changed 
to the uncouth one it now bears. It is situated on a deeper and 
better protected bay than St. Pierre, and the country back of it 
is less mountainous, but otherwise the two places very much resem- 
bled each other. (See map page 33.) 

TOPOGRAPHY OF ST. PIERRE. 

The topography of St. Pierre was peculiar. Facing the sea, 
with no land protection whatever from tides, its harbor was not a 
safe refuge for ships in time of storm. The beach was so abrupt, 
nevertheless, that heavy draft steamships found it possible to go 
within fifteen or twenty yards of the shore, there transferring their 
cargoes to barges and lighters, which could steam up and down the 
mile or so of beach directly bounding the city. The buildings 
began within a few yards of high-tide points, and covered the land, 
in spite of very abrupt slope for nearly a mile inland. The River 
Blanche is about a mile and a half above the upper boundary of 
the city. This is the most important stream of the neighborhood, 
but it is not navigable. 



64 The Island op Martinique. 

Though small and far away in the waters of the tropics, Mar- 
tinique felt the throbbing blood of the world. It not only received 
goods from the great empires, but sent much in return by which 
it was able to support its government, the functions of government 
and look after the welfare of its people. 

FAMOUS AS THE HOME OF JOSEPHINE. 

Historically the island is famous as the home of the Empress 
Josephine. Her father's sugar plantation was located not far from 
Fort de France, the capital of the island, and there she lived till 
almost grown, for a time in a palatial home, and after that was 
destroyed by a hurricane in the sugar-house of the plantation. The 
old house in which she was brought up is carefully preserved, though 
no longer used as a factory, for the people of Martinique are proud 
of their connection with the most stirring episodes and one of the 
most famous characters of French history, and the place is now pre- 
served as a showhouse. But it differs in no respect from the other 
sugar houses in the vicinity, and but for the monumental inscription 
without and the collection of Josephine relics within, it might easily 
pass for an ordinary sugar house. 

In truth, Martinique is the home of several famous women. 
Mine, de Maintenon was born in Martinique, her name as a girl 
being Francoise d'Aubigne. 

Here, too, a Turkish sultana, Nachshedil, consort of Abdul 
Hamid I., was likewise born. Aimee Dubuc de Rivery was the 
maiden name of the latter woman, and it was through shipwreck, 
piracy and the slave market that she fell finally into the hands of the 
sultan's officers. On completion of her education in a convent at 
Nantes, France, at the age of eighteen, she embarked at Marseilles 
to return to Martinique. While en route the vessel was shipwrecked 
and crew and passengers were captured by an Algerian pirate 
who exposed the young girl for sale in the slave market at Algiers. 
She was purchased by the dey, who sent her as a present to the sul- 
tan. She became the mother of Mahmoud II., grandfather of the 
present sultan. 

Josephine was not born on the soil of Martinique, but on ono 



The Island of Martinique. 



65 



of the three islands adjacent, called Trois Ilets. Josephine's 
father was an officer in the artillery. The aunt of Josephine lived 
in France. This aunt had been godmother to the second son of 




JOSEPHINE'S MONUMENT. 



Marquis de Beauharnais, formerly Governor of Martinique. At 
fifteen years of age Josephine was taken to France to marry this 



66 The Island of Martinique. 

son, negotiations having proceeded between the aunt and the mar- 
quis. Thus she was launched on that sad, stormy, checkered and 
brilliant career for which her name stands. She was the child of 
fortune, and we may say not less a soldier of fate than her two dis- 
tinguished husbands. 

On the Savane at Fort de France stands a beautiful marble 
statue of Josephine, surrounded by nine great palms, erected to her 
by Napoleon the Third. 

Since the earthquake in the island in 1839 the houses in the offi- 
cial city, Fort de France, have been built of wood and are but one 
story high. 

The many streams traversing the island, coming down from the 
heights, have furnished an abundant supply of pure water. 

THE NATIVES OF MAKTINIQUE. 

The island has had a stormy career. Columbus found there, in 
the last decade of that century which made America a part of the 
known world, the Carib savages. So fierce were these Indians, so 
war-like, so active in defense of their homes, that for many years 
after the discovery the island remained in their possession. Then 
the French adventurers colonized it ; the sea rovers and buccaneers, 
attracted by the beauty and fertility of the island. The Caribs 
were driven back from the coast lands to the mountain valleys, 
finally disappearing altogether. The French planters prospered, 
their estates covered the lowlands ; their slaves, imported from 
Africa,, multiplied to a great population ; their prosperity attracted 
the attention of their enemies. During the long struggle for su- 
premacy between France and England their colonial possessions 
suffered far more than the home countries. Finally, having al- 
ready colonized or taken by force many of the Caribbean Islands, 
the English fell upon Martinique. 

They took possession of it four times toward the end of the 
eighteenth century. A revolt of the blacks in 1853 was followed 
after some years by the extension of the franchises to all inhab- 
itants of free birth, regardless of color. 

The first English attack in 1759, which was led by General 



The Island of Martinique. 67 

Moore, was repulsed, but a second assault on Fort Royal, the prin- 
cipal defense of Martinique, was successful, and in 1762 the island 
passed into the possession of the English, but by a treaty of peace, 
signed on the 12th of February, 1763, Martinique, among other 
colonial possessions, was restored to France. 

A warship brought the news of the restoration to Fort Royal, 
the final transfer of troops and the installation of the new governor 
took place in June, on the 23d of which month Josephine Tascher 
de La Pagerie, afterward Empress of the French, was born. And 
it was in all probability the birth and marriage of this French 
planter's child which has prevented Fort Royal from fading out 
of history, or the world at large from forgetting the neighboring 
city of St. Pierre. 

The subsequent history of the island, though it is marked by 
social and political convulsions, and by brief, bloody wars, seems 
of little moment compared with the entrance into existence of this 
famous woman, whose life has influenced all European possessions. 

GOVERNMENT OF MAETINIQUE. 

The Government of Martinique consists of a local legislative 
body composed of natives which has the power to pass laws appli- 
cable to the exercise of political rights, the regulation of contracts, 
matters relating to wills, legacies and successions, the institution of 
juries, criminal procedure, recruiting for naval and military forces, 
and the methods of electing local officers in the cities and towns. 
The governor and other officers are appointed by the French Gov- 
ernment, which also makes the tariff laws of the island, as is the 
case with reference to its other colonies. This and the other Ameri- 
can colonies of France have, as already indicated, a much larger 
share of self-government than any other of her colonies, and are 
each represented by a senator and two deputies in the French legis- 
lative body corresponding to the Congress of the United States. 

These large powers of self-government and of participation in 
national legislation are the subject of open criticism by French 
economic writers. Leroy Beaulieu, perhaps the most distinguished 
of French writers of the present day upon economic subjects, in his 



68 



The Island of Martinique. 




The Island op Martinique. f>9 

"Colonization Chez les Peuples Modernes, " says: "As regards 
politics, we have introduced French liberty into our colonies; we 
give them civil governors, admit their representatives into our Par- 
liament, and while all these reforms are excellent in themselves, it is, 
unfortunately, to be feared that they will in practice result in abuses, 
and that unless the mother country is very watchful those very 
powers which she has granted to her colonies will become powers of 
oppression. The deputies whom Martinique sent to our Parliament 
serve only to represent the malice, prejudice and ignorance of the 
blacks. The weak executive power in France allows itself to be 
intimidated by these deputies and sends out to the colonies cowardly 
and incapable governors, whose indecision of character feeds the 
more or less barbarous hopes of the native population of the island." 

VIEWS OF AN ENGLISHMAN ON MARTINIQUE'S GOVERNMENT. 

Sir Charles Dilke, the well-known British legislator and writer 
upon colonial governments, does not join in the pessimistic views 
which the French writers express regarding the experiments which 
the French have made in the encouragement of local self-government 
in their West Indian colonies. In his ' ' Problems of Greater Britain ' ' 
he says: "Some who think the negro unfitted for self-government 
point to Hayti ; but they might reflect that in the French islands of 
Martinique and Guadeloupe power is in the hands of the colored 
people while the islands prosper. The experience, indeed, of those 
islands in which the negroes and l colored' people have been entrusted 
with a large share in the government, and the use which they make 
of representative institutions, seem to show that their detractors 
are in the wrong. The friends of the negro are now able to point to 
the progress effected by the West Indian peasant proprietors, to the 
spread of education, to the undoubted rise in the standard of com- 
fort, and to the prominent place already taken by individuals of the 
African race. The example of Martinique and Guadeloupe goes 
to show that it is time that we (the English) should make trial of 
a more liberal system. It is contended that where representatives of 
the people are elected by manhood suffrage, as is the case in the 
French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the result has been 



70 The Island op Maktinique. 

a recrudescence of race hatreds and the political subjugation of the 
whites to men of color. While we have a certain contempt for the 
French, considered as a colonizing people, every English writer on 
the subject admits that the French have been more successful in Mar- 
tinique and Guadeloupe than we have been in similar and closely 
adjoining islands. Excellent results have been obtained by the 
French through their frankly accepting the principle that the col- 
ored race is better suited to the West Indies than is the white, and 
France has encouraged and helped the colored people to become 
dominant in the French islands. Meantime the trade of the two 
French islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe, is, roughly speaking; 
one-third that of all the British West Indies, vastly greater in size 
and population ; and the British island of Dominica, which stands 
between the two French colonies, shows a lamentable contrast to 
their prosperity." 

A RECORD OF DISASTERS. 

The record of great disasters in the island is a startling one, 
and the destruction of St. Pierre stands only as the worst of a 
long series. Pestilence, fire, earthquake and hurricane have all 
contributed their terrors. The hurricane was the most dreaded 
of all, while the earthquake is so common that usually little atten- 
tion is paid to it. 

The earthquakes seem to have originated beneath Mont Pelee 
and are supposed to be due to the shifting of strata of rock in that 
locality. There are five volcanoes on the island, but all, like Mont 
Pelee, were supposed to be extinct, as since 1851 they had shown 
no activity. 

Fort de France, the capital, has been three times damaged by 
earthquake and once by hurricane. In 1888 its population was deci- 
mated by smallpox, and in 1890 a fire destroyed half the buildings. 

HARBOR HAS BEEN FAMOUS FOR YEARS. 

The harbor at St. Pierre has been a famous one for centuries. 
It was off this harbor on April 12, 1782, that Admiral Eodney's 



The Island or Martinique. 71 

fleet defeated the French squadron under the Compte de Grasse 
and wrested the West Indies from France. 

Martinique became an interesting point in this country during 
the recent war with Spain. The first news of the arrival of the 
Spanish fleet of Admiral Cervera came from St. Pierre. At 9 :30 
o'clock in the morning of May 11, 1898, the cruiser Harvard ar- 
rived at St. Pierre, and at 6 o 'clock the same evening a correspond- 
ent at Fort de France communicated to the Harvard's commander 
the fact that the Spanish torpedo boat destroyer Furor had put 
into Fort de France. The destroyer turned out to be the Terror 
instead of the Furor, but the important fact that Cervera was on 
this side of the ocean was established. 

SCENE OF THE STORY, "PAUL AND VIRGINIA." 

Bernardin de St. Pierre made a voyage to Martinique in his 
youth and located the scenes of his famous story of ' ' Paul and Vir- 
ginia" in that tropical island. Readers of that once popular ro- 
mance of childhood will recall the picture of Paul and Virginia 
shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, standing together in their 
youth and beauty in the shadow of a giant palm branch. 

Mont Pelee has effaced these memories of Martinique, and that 
unhappy island will always hereafter be associated in our minds 
with the ' ' fall of fire, ' ' as the French commander of the Suchet so 
graphically described it, which descended upon St. Pierre on the 
morning of May 8, 1902, and in the incredibly short time of three 
minutes wiped out a town. 

WHAT AN OLD COPY OF THE STANDARD CONTAINED. 

A faded copy of the Standard, printed at Antigua, has been 
preserved, containing a story of the adventure of the Tennessee 
Jubilee Singers among its other matter on the cyclone. The part 
which more particularly describes what the Attleborean went 
through is very interesting, and reads as follows : 

' ' The Tennessee Jubilee Singers were at Fort de France, where 
they were to give a concert on Tuesday evening. They were din- 
ing at the Hotel de l'Avenir when the storm burst upon the city. 



iZ 



The Island of Martinique. 



The hotel was unroofed in a few minutes. Then the walls began 
to fall in, story after story. Fortunately, the first floor bore up 
the weight, and all the inmates of the house crowded on the ground 
floor, the rain pouring down in torrents. Soon they were con- 
scious of a distant howling, and sea spray began to dash in at the 
doors and windows. There was barely time, working for dear life, 
to make all the openings tight, when they heard the rush of water 
past the house, and in a few minutes they were standing waist 
deep in sea water. 

''All the elements seemed to be let loose. The thunder was ter- 
rific. The peals were almost uninterrupted. The lightning con- 
stant and vivid, the flashes coming from every point and seeming 
to meet and battle furiously. Inside the house the scene was heart- 
rending, women and children wild with terror, screaming or pray- 
ing aloud. When a piece of wall fell upon the floor above them or 
a more appalling peal of thunder seemed to rend the heavens, there 
would be a hush of expectant death more terrible still than wailing. 
And then the screaming would begin with increased intensity from 
having been pent. 

"Strong men lost their heads completely. An officer in uni- 
form who had been dining at the hotel when the tempest burst, 
and had not been able to get away, became raving mad. He de- 
clared that the anger of God was being vented upon the country 
on account of the wickedness of the people, and could only be pro- 
pitiated by a sacrifice; whereupon he drew his sword, declaring 
that he would immolate the proprietor of the establishment and his 
family. He was mastered after a desperate struggle, and secured 
by his own sword belt to one of the legs of a billiard table. 

' ' When, after nearly three hours of mortal agony, during which 
death seemed every instant imminent, the wind abated somewhat 
and the water subsided, there came from the streets pitiful appeals 
for help and shelter, which could not be resisted. Doors were 
partly opened, and crowds came trooping in— delicate women 
among them, the light clothing in which they had escaped from the 
wrecked houses stripped to ribbons, so that when lights could be 
obtained "men took off their coats, waistcoats, and even shirts to 
cover them. 



The Island of Martinique. 73 

' ' The battle for bread is described as emulating the ferocity of 
starving ^ild beasts. In the face of hunger society had resolved 
itself into its elements." 

Greatly to be envied is the tourist who can say, ' ' I have visited 
the Island of Martinique, and the once beautiful and picturesque 
city of St. Pierre, which now lies buried never to rise again." 

VEGETATION. 

Travelers exhaust themselves in trying to describe the natural 
beauty of Martinique. Rising almost vertically from the sea, its 
sheer slopes are hidden under the billows of green, dense primeval 
forests, where vegetation flourishes with unparalleled richness. 
Where clearings had been made, over perhaps two-fifths of the 
island, the earth yielded luxuriant crops. Down through the deep, 
picturesque ravines countless rivulets and streams ran frothing to 
the sea, often forming cascades and rapids of wonderful beauty. 
Nature had covered over the ugly foundations of the island, for 
the whole structure is but heaped-up volcanic debris of the Ter- 
tiary period, carved by ages into picturesque shapes. 

The great natural beauty of Martinique was its growth of forests, 
which covered the mountain slopes with dense primeval vegetation. 
Down the slopes run numerous little streams, most of them mere 
rivulets, but there were a few which were navigable for a short dis- 
tance from the sea. 

A great source of pride to the natives were the Botanical Gar- 
dens at the base of the mountain, which contained specimens of all 
the exquisite tropical plants and flowers known to that climate. 

About a mile from St. Pierre was the Jardin des Plantes, one 
of the most famous gardens in the world, although of late years 
somewhat neglected. The primitive forest was the foundation for 
it, and art cunningly fashioned from the natural surroundings a 
spot of wonderful beauty, with dense woods, running streams, 
waterfalls and hidden fountains. These natural resources were 
made use of by the French, and many and varied beautiful plants 
were cultivated there. 

Henry Pene Du Bois, writing for the New York American and 
Journal, said just after the destruction of St. Pierre : 



74 The Island of Martinique. 

"It is not so sad to die in Martinique as it may be to die here. 
This thought may make one grieve less at the graves under Pelee. 
The temper of the West Indies, that is not felt here, alone may 
make one know what that thought implies. I do not assume that I 
have the ability to make it clear. I can say only that life is fuller, 
more finished there; that one enjoys it more, and that, perhaps, the 
extremes of life and death meet as do other extremes. Martinique 
is everybody's home. 

' ' It is, as the natives say, the land of the ' revenants, ' the land of 
the comers-back, for those who have lived in it for a year or a 
day sigh for it forever after. 

"It is a land of infinite sweetness. I have lived in the Rue 
Victor Hugo in a room where were a large mahogany bed with 
four posts and linen curtains decked with bells, colored images of 
the time of the Empire in France and religious pictures. * * * 

"It is a vision of Attica. At dawn all things are tinted with 
lilac. Yellow lights appear in the violet waves. The day comes 
abruptly. The sky is implacably pure, of a blue that is not seen 
elsewhere. • The sea is orange. The twilight reddens it as rubies. 
In the crowds that come to the landings of boats the faces of whites, 
blacks, mulattoes, coolies, their beauty of form, their varied cos- 
tumes, the head dress in bright colors, the conversations, the songs, 
the animation mingled with languid grace, make vivid to one all 
that the classics have evoked vaguely." 

INDUSTRIES. 

The industries of Martinique are not many but interesting. 
They enter into the life of the French Republic and into our own. 
They are the manufacture of rum, sugar and cocoa. The rum fac- 
tories are the most important, the article being manufactured from 
the sugar cane which is raised in great abundance in the planta- 
tions. The most important of the rum factories, belonging to M. 
de Garagarri, M. Savon, and M. Berti, were located at St. Pierre. 
The Berti plant consisted of some five distilleries, valued at about 
$500,000. The extensive sugar plant belonging to Dr. Guerin, and 
valued at about $200,000, was destroyed by the volcano some days 
before the final eruption. 




Copyright, 1902, by Mrs. Mary A. Garesche. 

A NATIVE MARTINIQUE WOMAN OF WEALTH. 
The women of this island wear much of their wealth on 
their heads. The wives and daughters be- 
come the family savings bank. 



The Island of Martinique. 77 

THE CULTIVATION OF SUGAR. 

The island was early given to the cultivation of sugar. It has 
the fickle fortune of any land which gives its attention to one 
product. The island is prosperous when sugar brings a good price 
and the crop is fair. The rich soil of that tropic land gives 
kindly welcome to the sugar cane. The sinewy, ebony men toil all 
day tirelessly in the heat rolling hogsheads of sugar, puncheons of 
molasses and casks of rum. 

The coffee plant is cultivated, yielding a bean of such superioi 
flavor that the natives cannot afford to keep it. They sell their 
own product and purchase an inferior bean from other places. 

The coffee is not indigenous to the islands, but was carried 
there by Descheux in 1726. Driven there by the want of water, 
he left both the bean and the seedlings on the island. 

A superior grade of tobacco is also grown on the island. Each 
one of the islands of the West Indies not only give different flavors 
of coffee, but differing flavors of tobacco, fibres of coffee and grades 
of sugar. The islands are peculiarly individual in this matter. 
Experts know the products of each island as they know the faces 
of men and women whom they meet. The expert is of course in 
demand. Fortunes are built up on the just distribution of these 
articles. 

THE MANIOC. 

One of the most interesting products is a plant called the 
manioc. It stands about a foot high, is vigorous, hardy and plenti- 
ful. The root of this plant in its original state is rank poison, 
yet it is the root of the plant which is the point of profit in the 
plant. From this root we obtain the tapioca, which serves as the 
basis of so many pleasant dishes for our table. For commercial 
purposes the root is crushed. "When this is done there comes from it 
a liquid which by chemical treatment is converted into tapioca. It 
seems strange that a root naturally poisonous serves as a staple food 
for the people of the whole earth. 

The root after being crushed is not worthless. By the process 
of crushing it becomes a shred-like material. This shredded ma- 



78 The Island of Martinique. 

terial is exposed to the sun and dried. This is now what is termed 
farine, used in a jelly-like condition to flavor fish, soup and other 
dishes. The manioc is a veritable treasure to the island and is 
a source of revenue, food and comfort. The plant grows freely 
everywhere in the island. 

MARTINIQUE'S COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. 

The commercial interests at St. Pierre make Martinique quite 
prominent commercially. We can see from the number of 
ships in the harbor at the time of the disaster how important Mar- 
tinique had become. The ships of all nations were there. 

There is in no sense manufactories on the island. The United 
States ship them hammers, nails, axes, hatchets, saws and hard- 
ware of every description. Even ice is shipped them from the 
United States. There are times when ice fails, and ice then runs up 
to thirty cents a pound. It is not an unusual sight to see steamers 
from the United States unloading ice at the wharves of St. Pierre. 
It is one of the most welcome cargoes which enters the ports. Be- 
sides hardware and ice, the United States also sends to Martinique 
breadstuffs, provisions, corn, lumber and a few drygoods. 

EXPORT THEIR GOODS TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 

The North American continent is bound to this island by many 
ties of friendship formed by merchants, sailors and educators, yet 
the business with Martinique was done on a different basis from 
that with the other islands in the West Indies. Ordinarily the com- 
mission houses shipping goods to these islands, as well as in the case 
of shipments to Mexico, Central and South America, received in 
return the products of those lands. 

By the French tariff regulations extraordinary inducements are 
offered to the islanders to export their products to the motherland, 
and also to receive the products of the motherland in return. This 
explains the small amount of American trade in the French posses- 
sions of the West Indies. 

' ' France allows on the products of her colonies, ' ' said a noted 



The Island of Martinique. 79 

writer, "what is known as a return of the 'taxes de distance'— 
a remittance of the duties larger in proportion to the distance be- 
tween the colony and the motherland, which makes it more profit- 
able for the colonial exporters to send their products to France, 
even if they cannot obtain as high prices for them there as in 
America. As a result, all American business with Martinique was 
done on a money basis. ' ' 

Without the sugar industry the people of the island could not 
well subsist. Many of them are very poor, although outwardly 
their houses and shops give an impression of wealth. Inside the 
shops the displays appear to be quite lavish, but there are few money 
purchasers. 

THE CREDIT SYSTEM PREVAILS. 

The credit system prevails almost exclusively. The majority 
of the people, who are black, of course, live on next to nothing. 
Four pence (8 cents) a day is the usual wage for labor, and is about 
as much as the employers can afford to pay. The laborers work 
very hard for the small wage. And as a result of the recent calam- 
ity it will be, under the best of conditions, many years before that 
portion of the island, covered by the molten lava, can be worked. 
The official imports for the island in 1899, all of which passed 
through St. Pierre, amounted to 27,004,526 francs ($5,400,905), 
while the exports were 26,603,137 francs ($5,320,627). Of these 
total imports 14,181,627 francs came from France and 7,560,298 
francs from the United States. The imports of coal from the United 
States alone in that year were 6,869 tons. The principal articles of 
export in 1899 were sugar, 31,664 tons, and rum, 3,577,760 gallons. 
Of the total exports, about $2,000,000 represented the products of the 
island, while the rest was re-exjDorted. 

The loss of St. Pierre, as the mouthpiece through which Mar- 
tinique expressed its industry and commerce to the outside world, 
takes a prominent place in the list of the material loss of the world. 
It was the center of the intelligence and agitations which placed 
Martinique in the front ranks among the industrial centers of the 
Antilles. With less than fifty per cent of its acreage under culti- 
vation the people of the island were ixi circumstances of toler- 



80 The Island of Martinique. 

able comfort, while the rest of the group were in perpetual poverty. 
Travelers have over and ever again noticed the striking absence of 
beggars about the place as contrasted with other islands. An indus- 
trial system, in advance of the system in vogue in other of the An- 
tilles, was in almost universal operation. They led in the central 
factory or usine system of sugar manufacture and made sugar pay. 
Upward of 6 ? 000 peasant proprietors contributed their industry to 
this condition and reaped a not-to-be-despised share of the benefits. 
The intelligence of the laborer is on the average higher than on any 
other island of that section of the archipelago. 

SETTLE LABOR TROUBLES BY ARBITRATION. 

It is the only island in which planters and laborers habitually 
met in conference as men with men to discuss labor grievances. 
Two or three years ago the plantation laborers went out on strike 
for higher wages. After sundry conferences it was decided to sub- 
mit their grievances to arbitration. It is the only island in that 
section in which either the one thing or the other would have been 
done. Nowhere else are the laborers so well organized as to in- 
augurate anything like a successful strike and nowhere else are 
their claims and interests so well recognized as to regard such an 
attempt as anything short of " rebellion." 

St. Pierre was the directing center of all these activities. It 
held the key to the commercial situation in which nearly $6,000,000 
worth of exports and about as much import business was done. 
Besides agricultural industries directed from St. Pierre, there 
were thousands of people skilled in all the ordinary handicrafts. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PEOPLE OF MAKTINIQUE — THEIE, LANGUAGE, RELIGION, 
EDUCATION AND HABITS. 

The Perfect Physique — Grace — Carriers of Merchandise — Dress- — Peculiarities, 
Customs, Society, Amusements — A Paris in Embryo — Market Place — 
Government, Literature, Public Schools, Private Schools, Morals. 

When Esnambuc formally occupied the Island of Martinique in 
the name of France there began the extinction of the Caribs, its orig- 
inal inhabitants, though at the time of the recent disaster a few of 
them could still be found. The importation of African slaves, 
generations ago, the later arrival of Asiatics, and the final coloni- 
zation by European races with the consequent intermarrying of 
all, gave rise to a peculiar variety of color and a mingling of races 
in the people of Martinique found in no other of the West Indies. 

There appears every shade of color, from the true African 
black to the apparently white native, in whom, however, runs an 
unmistakable strain of the negro blood. There are also on the 
island a proportion of pure whites, French Government officials 
and soldiers, traders of all nations and owners of plantations. 

These, however, form but a small part of the population. The 
blacks and half-castes form the bulk of the inhabitants. These 
half-castes range from almost pure white to the dark, primitive 
negro. The Sanymeli have but the suspicion of negro blood ; they 
are practically white. 

There is quite a colony of Hindoos and Chinese. Each are a 
reproduction, in manner and customs, of their far-away lands. 

If you look at the Africans among the people you will see a 
transformation of type. The African has been modified by two 
hundred years of history, soil and experience. The heel does not 
protrude, the foot is arched and fine, the limbs are shapely. Mar- 
tinique grows fine people even among the primitive races. 

The blending of the original Indian stock with French, Portu- 
guese and other foreigners gives a rich, dark complexion and pro- 

81 



82 The People of Martinique. 

duces one of the handsomest type of people to be found anywhere 
in the world. The women are finely formed and the men stalwart 
and strong. This remarkable development may be partly attrib- 
uted to the frugal life they lead. 

PERFECT PHYSIQUE. 

Special description is due the women of the island. Artists 
have said that the native of Martinique is a living statue— that 
among the men and women can be found hundreds whose forms 
equal in grace and fair proportion the idealized Apollo and Venus 
of the studios. One traveler says: 

1 1 Here at the market you will see one of the most characteristic 
of the many West Indian types, the carrier girls. These are the 
burden-bearers of the island, and as a special type of physical race 
development they cannot be surpassed in any country. This per- 
fection of bodily physique is truly wonderful, a glowing recom- 
pense which nature and out-door life award to these dark children 
of tropic lands. 

"Their physical endurance in sustaining heavy loads beneath 
the tropic sun is astonishing. We drove once to a mountain vil- 
lage. Our carriage was drawn by a span of mules that were 
strong and persevering, yet quite a number of carrier girls passed 
us. Up the steep winding road we saw their supple figures sway- 
ing to and fro with steady stride, balancing on their heads heavily 
laden trays, one hand resting on the hip." 

CARRIERS OF MERCHANDISE. 

These native women are the carriers of nearly all merchandise. 
Fruits, vegetable and foodstuffs are carried from the interior on 
these human heads. Upon returning at night the carriers always 
put stones in their baskets in order to balance them in making 
turns around the mountain corners. Nearly all the regular pack- 
ets, local boats, are coaled, loaded and unloaded by native women 
and girls. They carry trunks and boxes to almost any destina- 
tion, and the great steamers are coaled by the women at Fort de 



The People of Martinique. 83 

France. The coal is carried on the head and they sing as they go. 
The singing voices are as rich as the beautiful verdure of the 
island. And they sing as they come with the fruit on their heads 
from the interior of the island. 

Fierce contests are frequent among these rival women. They 
will begin the quarrel whilst these huge baskets are on their heads. 
Then they place the burdens on the ground, fighting each other 
by butting with their heads. This endangers life, limb and brains. 
The native inhabitants of all these tropic islands are particularly 
savage in their warfare. We are accustomed to think there is no 
physical strength in the tropics, but these Creoles are perfect speci- 
mens of strength. 

The Porteuse, or woman carrier, begins her training at five 
years of age. She carries a package of rice or an earthen bowl of 
water— an orange, a plate, even. She must not touch these with 
her hands. At nine she will carry a weight of twenty or thirty 
pounds fifteen miles, walking barefoot every step of the way. At 
seventeen she is a lithe, tall, robust girl, and she can carry 150 
pounds. Her wage will not range from $6 to $7.50 per week, but 
she carries not less than 120 pounds every day and a distance of 
fifteen miles. 

This weight is such and so balanced that the Porteuse cannot 
load or unload herself. It would break her neck, burst a blood 
vessel or rupture a muscle. She must have absolute balance for 
safety. There is no person on the island who will not help a 
Porteuse load or unload. It makes no difference how high his sta- 
tion or how wealthy he may be, it is a code of honor to be gladly 
willing to help a Porteuse with her load. 

DKESS OF THE NATIVES. 

Her garments are a chemise and a calico robe. These consti- 
tute her sole wardrobe for the work of the day. She has a plain 
cloth upon her head. This is surrounded or surmounted by a pad 
of coarser quality. On this she puts her basket or tray, for they 
carry both. She cannot wear shoes, for she not only must have a 
firm footing but she has mountains to climb and descend, thou- 



84 • The People of Maktiniqtje. 

sands of feet every day. Shoes are impossible. Shoes yield, the 
foot holds fast. 

She carries a canvas purse at her side, and her drink is of rum 
or cheaper stimulant or water. 

The roads of the island are magnificent, as good as the best 
road a Eoman ever constructed. No one molests a Porteuse. She 
has money and valuable goods, but she is never robbed. They 
themselves are marvels of honesty and integrity in business. 

The men laborers are stronger in proportion than the women 
but not so picturesque. They wear a straw hat ; the trunk or body 
is naked, the limbs covered with trousers. They are bare of feet. 
When the natives dress in their holiday attire they are fond of 
greatly exaggerating the styles in order to be loud and showy. 
The business dress of the men is a loose-fitting blouse of a dark 
material, white trousers and a Panama hat. They are extremely 
fond of singularity and brilliancy in dress. Many of the costumes 
are of the flowing seventeenth century designs. Among the women 
of the richer classes there is shown a passion for jewelry— not 
cheap imitations, for they spurn anything other than solid gold. 
The earrings of the Southern ante-bellum negroes were toys beside 
those worn by the natives of Martinique. The women will adorn 
themselves with anything that is gold, and wear jewelry on all 
parts of the body. 

GRACE AND APPEARANCE. 

A striking characteristic was the marked comeliness of the 
women of St. Pierre. Whether this was due to the fact that a 
Iiearty sympathy with French ideals induced an absorption of 
French aesthetics as regards deportment, which extended from the 
highest down through the various grades to the lowest, or to some 
other influence, it is a fact that if a woman of special charm and 
beauty (whether colored in her way or white in her way) were met 
in one of the other islands the general impression— not always cor- 
rect, of course—was that she was from St. Pierre. 

Their movements of easy grace, hair thick and slightly curled, 
complexion brown but mellowed into rich tints by the sun; eyes 



The People of Martinique. 85 

large, dark and poetic, lips red with the tinge of the sensuous, a 
form startling in its symmetry, bearing aloft a well-poised head set 
off by the picturesque folds of the turban— these all produce an 
effect fascinating as it is uncommon. 

Though of recent years the turban is being discarded by some 
of the women, it may still be termed part of the national dress. 
Always it is of brilliant color, and usually a vivid yellow. On 
saints' days, when the cathedrals were thronged from sunrise till 
dark by crowding worshipers, the effect was indescribably pictur- 
esque, enhanced to the stranger by the language, a soft corruption 
of the musical French. 

CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. 

The market place, as in all tropical settlements, is the focus of 
activity during the cool hours of the day. Here gather the whole 
population of the town, buying and selling. From the country dis- 
tricts come the farmer folk, spreading their wares, vegetables and 
fruits around the fountain, the noise and motion and liveliness of 
the scene making it fascinating to the stranger. 

Quaint customs also prevail. When a child is lost the town 
crier goes around the streets ringing a bell and calling attention 
to the fact. When the streets become dusty he rings his bell and 
cries "Arrosez" (sprinkle the street), which, if neglected, in- 
volves a fine. 

The women of the lower order, with which the island swarms, 
lead a careless sort of life. Their greatest pleasure consists in dress- 
ing themselves in robes of many colors, toques of bright yellow 
and orange and fine French gaiters, which are worn unbuttoned 
so that the red lining may be seen. Over their shoulders is thrown 
a silken handkerchief. To this dis'play is added immense earrings 
and a necklace of many rows of hollow gold beads. 

There were many peculiar customs in the city of St. Pierre, 
one of which was that the women made a practice of wearing but 
one slipper at a time in order to show that they really owned slip- 
pers. They always wore one slipper to show they were not poor, 
and thus a pair lasted them longer. 



86 The People of Martinique. 

AMUSEMENTS. 

In the winter time, along in January or February, there comes 
to the towns a light opera company from France, and the social 
season begins. There is much entertaining and dancing in a 
small way. 

In the summer or rainy season it is dull. The terrible tropical 
rain comes and floods the streets, and the stores are often rilled 
with water to the depth of a few inches. But it soon runs off, the 
sun comes out and it is fine once more. 

A TROPICAL LITTLE PARIS. 

Never has a nation so indelibly stamped its characteristics upon 
an alien race as France transformed the negress of Martinique. A 
child of sunshine, St. Pierre was truly a tropic little Paris, whose 
people were all Parisians of a darker hue. Different, indeed, is it 
from the English islands where the negro boatman quarrels sullen- 
ly over his fee, and the sighing planter talks of nothing but im- 
pending ruin. The other Caribbees are filled with regrets and 
moaning, but when the steamer anchored at St. Pierre ! 

It began with rollicking, naked, diving boys, who paddled with 
shouts of laughter in little coffin-like boats to the steamer's side, 
to beg you to throw a penny over to them. A shout, a single splash, 
as a dozen little brown bodies plunged into the water after the 
sinking coin— up they came again, the triumphant possessor of the 
penny chanting a saucy poem as he scrambled back into his boat. 

It continued when your boatman sang in perfect rhythm to his 
stroke and smiled when he received his pay. On the narrow beach 
hundreds of brightly clad figures with heavy burdens on their 
heads that would affright our burliest Northern porters, walked 
briskly, easily along, passing quick jests back and forth, each sally 
bringing out a ripple of mellow laughter. 

All up and down the Eue Victor Hugo, as the main street was 
called, it was the same. From bay, from shore, from street, even 
from up the green-wooded hills, one long peal of light-hearted 
laughter rose with each morning's sun, to die away long after it 



The People of Martinique. 87 

set. Does it not seem cruel that this bit of Paradise should meet 
with such a fate ? That the past tense must be used in its descrip- 
tion instead of the present? 

GAY LIFE AT MARTINIQUE. 

The life of the foreign people, the whites, is select and even 
idealistic. A real cultivation pervades their association. The 
temperature has a mean of 81 degrees, which permits an open-air 
life with games incident to cultivated and leisured classes. 

C. J. Moore, a Western man who spent some time in Martinique 
during one winter, said at the time of the disaster he was not think- 
ing half as much of the ruined city as he was of some of the pleas- 
ant, happy, careless people he met there. 

One colored boy he named "Pete." Although he boasted of a 
French name, Pete seemed to fit him very well and he took kindly 
to it. He first met Pete when taking a walk, and finding that he 
could speak good English, and that he was bright and intelligent, 
made him his companion many times while exploring the surround- 
ing country. 

Pete, who liked to stroll around, but who detested real work, 
reminded him strongly of the negroes of the plantations down 
south; he was the same sort of a loyal, careless, good natured 
fellow. 

Once he went by boat to Fort de France and took Pete with him. 
Pete was 23, but he had never before made the journey of ten miles 
from one city to the other. Pete was anxious to go with his friend 
when Mr. Moore left, and he thought of taking him with him, and 
finally offered to do so, but at the very last moment Pete declined. 
He wanted to see the United States, but he did not want to leave a 
young woman of his acquaintance. "I have been wondering," 
said Mr. Moore, ' ' how my poor Pete met his death. He was a good 
fellow, and a bright spirit if there ever was one." 

Mr. Moore was much interested in the street scenes. A group 
of the natives taken at random would be found to be apparently 
perfectly happy. They were ready to laugh or sing, he said, and 
seemed to him to be real children of the sun. 



88 The People of Maetinique. 

He met several of the business men, and after he left, received 
a letter from one of them, enclosing a scarf pin he lost while in his 
store one day. It was found by one of the clerks after he sailed, 
and was sent to him. 

In many ways he was made to feel while he was there that those 
he met were anxious to help him have a good time. Pete was the 
only one who was willing to forego business entirely in order to 
amuse him, but then bright, light-hearted Pete made amusing 
somebody, the business of his life. 

"After all, they were only strangers," said Mr. Moore, "but I 
couldn't help feeling when I read of the awful disaster that I had 
lost some good friends. I can only hope that my poor, faithful 
Pete was permitted to pass out of this world without much suffer- 
ing. Knowing his habits as I do, I doubt if he was awake at the 
time. ' ' 

DAPHNE OF THE MARKET PLACE. 

Another writes : From between the pages of my notebook as I 
write falls a bright flower, roughly pressed, its petals not yet faded, 
its leaves still green. Daphne gave me that— bronze-limbed, black- 
eyed Daphne of the market place. 

Perfect in form and color as were the fruits in the wicker tray 
before her, so was Daphne, La Belle Negresse of the market place. 
Around the brown-gold sapodillas, Daphne had thrown, with a 
careless grace, a tangle of brilliant tropic flowers. Over her own 
brown-gold skin the same artist had draped wondrous-hued Mad- 
ras, its dazzling colors rivaling the blossoms themselves. 

"Would the monsieur buy the fruits of the pauvre petite 
Daphne?" Most assuredly monsieur would, would indeed have 
purchased yams or sea salt from so charming a pleader. "Oh, so 
kind," was monsieur. With a smile that showed a gleam of fault- 
less teeth she endowed him with countless virtues unpossessed even 
by the blessed saints. And when monsieur declined the change 
she picked, with dainty fingers, the rarest flower on the tray and 
fastened it on the lapel of his coat. That was scarcely three weeks 
before the terrible rain of fire. The flower has not yet faded— but 



The People of Martinique. 89 

"pauvre petite Daphne"— I wonder where under the mass of 
molten lava lies her charred form? 

Alas! Daphne, the market, the gay sunlit streets, the happy 
crowds, the wonderful gardens, all lie black and desolate beneath 
that mass of molten lava— nothing remains save the still faintly 
scented blossom! , 

FRENCH TASTE EVERYWHERE. 

And Daphne is but typical of the native girl of Martinique. A 
French taste is easily discernible in the color scheme and general 
design of St. Pierre. The yellow buildings with their red roofs 
ranged in tiers along the streets, which ran in parallel lines with 
the sea, up the sides of a lofty hill, presented an impressive picture 
as they shimmered in the blaze of the tropical sun. The contrasts 
of yellow and orange with a touch of white here and there and a 
background of perpetual green are to most beholders restful and 
refreshing. 

There was nothing specially striking in the way of architecture. 
A cathedral, a gothic structure at St. Pierre, was perhaps the only 
building which betrayed signs of attempts at special architectural 
embellishments, and that was nothing very special. The buildings 
were mostly plain, neatly constructed places, not often more than 
two stories in height, and on the outside had a more striking 
appearance than inside. They were plain, without being severe, 
and the painters' taste made them picturesque without being 
vulgar. They generally lacked the power to impress one with a 
sense of their durability to the same extent as do those of most of 
the cities of the British colonies, but they stood ordinary Jests and 
on the whole bore very favorable comparison. 

SUFFRAGE EQUAL TO WHITE AND BLACK. 

Suffrage is given to white and black equally in Martinique, but 
the latter outnumber the whites to such an extent that the latter 
take no interest in municipal matters. It would be useless, for 
they would be solidly outvoted. 

The French people could, perhaps, give other nations some 



90 The People of Maktizstique. 

points as to the development of a loyal and loving people under a 
republican system of government. Under the French Govern- 
ment and the Catholic Church the citizens of St. Pierre enjoyed 
more liberty than do the citizens of any other city outside of 
French rule in the West Indies. There was no social ostracism on 
any racial basis. Men and women were men and women, whether 
they were put up in ebony or alabaster. Social disabilities super- 
vened upon inability, considered from either a financial or an in- 
tellectual standpoint (or from both), to move with becoming ad- 
dress in the circle to which one aspired. Men were accepted for 
what they were worth, and the loss of St. Pierre is the loss of a city 
which demonstrated this principle on a broader and more liberal 
scale than any other in the West Indies. The object lesson which, 
along these lines, it was perpetually teaching, is an item which will 
always win for St. Pierre the treasured memory of a leader, not- 
withstanding few cared to follow. 

THE LANGUAGE OF MARTINiaiJE. 

French is the official language of the island, though the lower 
classes speak a peculiar patois, or dialect French, which is wholly 
unintelligible to foreigners though they are able to speak perfect 
French. The better classes are able to understand and speak pure 
French; but few use any other language on ordinary occasions 
than the patois, a colloquial jargon almost identical with the ver- 
nacular of the Channel Islanders. 

A large number of people speak English, but they love 
the French language even in the corrupt form which obtains, 
and will not as a rule speak English to any whom they sus- 
pect of acquaintance with patois. I had occasion on my first 
visit to St. Pierre, says a traveler, to inquire of a coster- 
woman the price of her fruit. I addressed her in English. 
She replied (phonetically): "Oo pable patwah?" I answered, 
"Mo' pa pable patwah." "Ah," she contended, "oo pable pat- 
wah we ! oo pable patwah !" That woman would rather have lost a 
sale than speak English to me because I had the misfortune to ex- 
haust my vocabulary of patois, which was at the time limited to 



The People of Martinique. 91 

four short words. This is typical of the people's pathetic devo- 
tion to everything French. 

THE LITERATURE OF MARTINIQUE. 

The society, composed mostly of French and French extrac- 
tion, keep in touch with their best literature and works, the nation 
and the world. We cannot say that Martinique produces a litera- 
ture of its own, for the area is too limited for that. All who have 
books to publish or ideas to present in literature return to France, 
where the great audience of French readers all over the world are 
reached. It is the old story of the sensitive and great who leave 
the quiet of home and the smaller area for the great field of the 
world. The Englishman goes to London, the American to New 
York, the Italian to Rome, the Austrian to Vienna, the Spaniard 
to Madrid, the Russian to St. Petersburg and the Frenchman to 
the famous City of Paris. So, Josephine and the Beauharnais got 
the training for a brilliant future in Martinique, but France fur- 
nishes the larger and more adventurous field. 

EDUCATION. 

The Government has made very elaborate provisions for pop- 
ular education in comparison with the other West Indian islands. 
A complete public school system is maintained in the towns. 
There is also a government law school at Fort de France, with 
eighty-six students ; also three secondary schools, one hundred and 
fifty-two primary schools in St. Pierre and seventy-five private 
schools, while between St. Pierre and Morne Rouge stood the college 
—the highest institution of learning on the island. It stood back 
from the beautiful road that runs to the resort, and was a favorite 
place for tourists to stop when on their way to visit the volcano. 

There is an interesting school conducted by the officers of the 
artillery at Fort de France. It is open to young Frenchmen and 
is equal in rank to the celebrated college, Chalon Sur Marne in 
France. The seminary college at St. Pierre is administered by 
the Fathers of Saint Esprit. The whites and blacks do not attend 
the same school; each is in a school of their own. 



92 The People of Martinique. 

It is stated by those who have spent years on the island that 
a large percentage of young men and young women who were grad- 
uates of the best schools in America, England, Germany and 
France were no better scholars. It has, too, side by side, probably 
greater ignorance. 

THE RELIGION OF MARTINIQUE. 

The island is in charge of a Bishop, who has under him two 
Vicar Generals, sixty-two priests, cures and three chaplains to 
the military forces. The island is divided into 82 parishes. 

There are in the islands what is termed congregations or orders. 
These are five in number. The first is the Fathers of Saint Esprit, 
who conduct the Seminary College at St. Pierre ; the second are the 
Brothers of the Institute de Ploermelo ; third is the Congregation 
of Sisters of St. Joseph de Cluny, who devoted their lives to teach- 
ing ; fourth the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, consecrated exclu- 
sively to hospital service, and fifth and last the Sisters of Deliver- 
ance, devoted to Instruction. The deep hold that these teachers 
have taken upon the people could be seen by visiting Morne Rouge 
or Red Hill, a suburb of St. Pierre. This is a Holy City. Once 
a year a pilgrimage is made to this shrine and it is made on foot 
in true and holy fashion. The church is beautifully decorated, 
there are many fine paintings and the edifice is richly endowed by 
the gifts of the pilgrims. The Virgin is most richly arrayed and 
adorned. There are many crosses and Momets of Calvary in the 
building. Near the town is a most beautiful grotto, where there 
is an image of the Virgin. This grotto is overhung with true 
ferns. The water flows down from the rocks, forming a beautiful 
pool which feeds a flowing fountain. It is most charming to the 
eye and restful to mind and body. 

Sunday is a fete day and the young brothers from the monas- 
tery and the young ladies from the seminary attend chapel in a 
body. 

There is not a Protestant mission worth the name on the island. 
An effort was made about eight years ago to establish a Protestant 
mission, but it failed. It failed less because the people were good 




Copyright, 1902, by Mrs. Mary A. Garesche. 

PLANTATION OWNER AND ONE OE HIS LABORERS. 



The People of Martinique. 95 

Catholics than because they were sick of orthodox creeds. The edu- 
cated men and women are generally agnostic, but attend church 
because of a hereditary taste for the aesthetic feature of the Catholic 
ritual. The lower classes are as a rule no more seriously impressed. 

MANNERS AND MORALS. 

All classes to a greater or lesser extent divorce religion from 
morality. Consequently they are regarded as being, on an average, 
less moral than other communities in the West Indies. This judg- 
ment should, however, be accepted with reserve. 

THE PEOPLE OE MARTINIQUE. 

I believe it can be shown that in all personal and social dealing 
the people of Martinique are not in their several grades behind 
other people, either in the West Indies or elsewhere. The atmos- 
phere in which they move is freer and there is probably less induce- 
ment to shamming on moral questions than in other West Indian 
colonies. It is not that they are so much "sinners above others," 
as that they oftener and more frankly than many others admit 
when and wherein they are sinners. 

THE MARRIAGE VOW. 

It has often been pointed out that the marriage relationship 
is held in loose esteem. For the external phases of this condition 
the peculiar laws are partly responsible. Back of the external 
shortcomings the relations of the home are generally as filial and 
enduring there as elsewhere, and one can easily think more so, con- 
sidering that the predominant elements are a harmonious blend of 
the French and African. The breaking of a conventional canon, 
all who are able to enter into the ' ' life ' ' of the people will admit, is 
not generally the uprooting of an ethical principle. They have 
their weaknesses but they have also their strong points— and they 
are more strong than weak. 

Many travelers and dwellers in the land speak frequently of the 
apparently deep religious feeling of the people of Martinique. On 
the hill above and to the right of the bay a large chapel was erected, 
containing a statue of the Virgin and a number of the saints of the 
Catholic calendar. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MONT PELEE IN SLTJMBEE AND ACTION. 

Mont Pelee as it Seemed to the Inhabitants of Martinique— Famous Summer 
Resort — Pelee Not Feared by Natives— French Government Bulletin — 
Mont Pelee's Death-Knell Fate Expected— Letters Telling the Story of 
Danger — The Governor's Report. 

While the eyes of all the world are turned toward Mont Pelee, 
beholding its resistless rage in hurling 30,000 souls out of existence 
in the space of three minutes, let us for a moment forget the horror 
and look upon Mont Pelee as the people of St. Pierre looked upon it, 
and call it Martinique's chief delight and charm. 

Rising from the coast to an altitude of about 4,500 feet, it seemed 
to hover over the island and assume a guardianship akin to father- 
hood. In bulk Mont Pelee is a massive mass of volcanic rock, with 
hundreds of smaller volcanoes lying all about it. On its slopes are 
born thirteen streams and over and around all was thrift and beauty. 

DISASTER WITHOUT A PARALLEL. 

The appalling disaster stands almost without a parallel in the 
world's history. There have been calamities in which the loss of 
life was greater, but there is none on record where the destruction 
was more complete, the death-dealing forces more mighty and re- 
sistless, more savage in the handling of fire and smoke, of boiling, 
steaming water and molten lava. Like a great furnace, the volcano 
of Pelee emptied its contents, which rushed down the mountain 
side in a fiery torrent, burning up all that came in its path, never 
stopping until the sea was reached and the destruction was com- 
plete. It spared none, had no respect for age or sex or condition. 
The mansions of the rich and the huts of the poor were to it the 
same. All were fuel for this awful furnace, all proved victims to 
this mighty force, which, when unchained, mocked at man and 
proved to him how weak and helpless he is when compared witli it, 

96 



Mont- Pelee in Slumber and Action. 97 

HAD BEEET PREDICTED. 

That a disaster such as this would at some time occur in this vol- 
canic region had frequently been predicted. The group of islands 
to which Martinique belongs is wholly of volcanic origin, and there 
has never been lacking proof of the thinness of the earth's crust 
or evidence that nature's great fires had not been wholly extin- 
guished. Geologists who had made a careful study of the region 
had time and again declared that Mont Pelee was liable to burst 
forth in eruption at any time. When in 1851 there was an explosion, 
it was predicted that in fifty years another would come ; but as time 
passed and one generation succeeded another, the prediction was 
forgotten, and the great volcano was counted as harmless or extinct. 
Men had no fear of it. They, even dared to toy with it, and on its 
sides, nearly half-way to its dangerous mouth, built a pleasure 
resort, and there many of the wealthy people had erected handsome 
homes, where they resided nearly all the year. To them and to 
all the people of St. Pierre the great peak was but a beautiful back- 
ground for one of the most charming and picturesque spots in the 
whole West Indies, a place famed as a health resort, the beauty of 
which once looked upon could never be forgotten. 

THE FAMOUS SUMMER RESORT SAVED. 

On one side rested the beautiful little town of Morne Rouge, a 
favorite summer resort of the well-to-do families of St. Pierre. Its 
only drawback being in the fact that it was damp. It is said that the 
moisture is so great that shoes mildew over night. Leading from 
Morne Rouge was a picturesque road built by the government, 
gradually descending 2,000 feet to St. Pierre. At frequent inter- 
vals along this road were little shrines, filled with images and 
statuettes, before which candles continually burned. At the very 
top of Mont Pelee was a beautiful shrine erected to the Virgin. 
The inhabitants in their most serious moments never dreamed that 
an eruption was again possible. Mont Pelee seemed of the past so 
far as fire and ashes were concerned, and of the future so far as 
beauty was concerned, The very fact that it lent life and thri i'i, 



98 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

to all things which touched it, and that a lake lay at the bottom of 
the crater gave strength to this supposition. 

PELEE NOT FEARED BY NATIVES. 

Mont Pelee had long since ceased to be looked upon as a thing 
to be feared ; in fact it was, in the minds of the inhabitants, simply 
a mountain and the chief pride of the city, where cool breezes could 
be found even on the hottest days. To this mecca pleasure seekers 
went. Up the winding drives lined with rich tropical verdure, they 
stopped at every turn to look back over the city beneath which rolls 
away to meet the broad expanse of waters creating a picture to 
which only the brush of the artist can do justice. 

WORDS OF AN ENGISH TOURIST. 

' ' The people of St. Pierre were proud of Mont Pelee ; they had 
absolutely no fear that the grand slumbering old hill would ever 
spurt forth fire and death, ' ' said Percy F. Marks, an English tourist. 
' ' The natives, ' ' he continued, ' ' regarded the mountain as a sort of 
protector; they had an almost superstitious affection for it. From 
the outskirts of the city it rose gradually, its sides grown thick with 
rich grass, and dotted here and there with spreading shrubbery and 
drooping trees. There was no pleasanter outing for an afternoon 
than a journey up the green, velvet-like sides of the towering moun- 
tain and a view of the quaint, picturesque city slumbering at its base. 

"There were no rocky cliffs, no protruding boulders. The 
mountain was peace itself. It seemed to promise perpetual protec- 
tion. The poetic natives relied upon it to keep back storms from 
the land and frighten with its stern brow the tempests from the sea. 
They pointed to it with profoundest pride as one of the most beau- 
tiful mountains in the world. 

' ' Children played in its bowers and arbors ; families picnicked 
there day after day during the balmy weather ; hundreds of tourists 
ascended to the summit and looked with pleasure at the beautiful 
crystal lake, which sparkled and glinted in the sunshine. Mont 
Pelee was the place of enjoyment of the people of St. Pierre. 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 99 

"I wonder what the trustful, worshipful people thought when 
the great volcano began to frown upon them ; when steam and fire 
began to rise from those beautiful, grassy slopes ? As near as I can 
ascertain, the spurts of lava came from the sides, not the top. From 
the position of the volcano the torrents must have flooded straight 
into the city, sweeping through the nice districts first, and next 
blotting out the business districts. Had some one, when I was in 
St. Pierre, told the natives that Mont Pelee would soon open up 
and hurl death at them, they would have laughed. I can just 
hear the placid, forbearing natives say: 'Oh, no! Old Father 
Pelee is our protector— not our destroyer.' But no one suggested 
it, because no one even suspected it. ' ' 

VIEWS OF A NATIVE. 

A citizen of New York, but a native of Martinique, wrote to a 
friend shortly after the disaster : "To me Mont Pelee was never a 
real terror. It was dead. There were many in the island who could 
remember the day fifty-one years ago when it blustered and threat- 
ened with its smoke and with its ashes. But that danger went by 
without a dire calamity, and all of us had come to think that it would 
never again threaten us. 

"Now the deluge has come, and we read the quaint old city of 
St. Pierre, which has stood there on the edge of the sea with its 
back to the mountain all these years, is buried forever. It seems 
incredible, and yet it is true. 

" As I think of the years I have spent there, of the days I have 
walked up the steep sides of that murderous mountain and looked 
down into the crater, with its lake of stagnant water sparkling in 
the tropic sun, I am shocked beyond expression that these two 
neighbors— the one towering over the other like a guardian— should 
have fallen out and such a tragedy come to pass. ' ' 

OTHER COMMENTS ON PELEE. 

R. J. Dora, the American Trading Company's agent, of New 
York, returned from Martinique only a short time ago, having spent 
many years there. He said : 

L.ofC. 



100 Mont Pelee in Sltimbek and Action. 

"It was a frequent custom in St. Pierre to make journeys up to 
the crater of Mont Pelee. By the mountain road it was about 
eight miles, though, as a bird would fly, only about Ave miles. The 
road ran almost to the edge of the crater, and then turned off to go 
to Marigot, the most important shipping village on the eastern side 
of the island. 

"The crater of Mont Pelee is about twelve miles to the north of 
St. Pierre. It is very deep, its sides covered with rocks and lava 
beds. ,The crater proper was about 200 yards in diameter. At the 
bottom was a beautiful lake, containing clear water, slightly sul- 
phurous in taste, but otherwise good. The strange part about the 
lake, however, was its unfathomable depth. All kinds of soundings 
were tried, but no one ever succeeded in reaching the bottom. ' ' 

TRENCH GOVERNMENT BULLETIN. 

A vivid picture of the eruption of Mont Pelee in 1851 was 
printed in the official bulletin of the French government. The fol- 
lowing is a translation of the report : 

"A tradition without historic foundation, and which antedates 
the establishing of the Europeans in the islands, but which is 
strongly impressed upon the superstitions of the people, recounts 
that Mont Pelee had been the seat of a volcano. The conical form 
of this mountain, peculiar to all mountains where this phenomenon 
manifests itself, the epithet 'Pelee' given to its summit,' the exist- 
ence there of a lake which passed for an ancient crater, the pumice- 
like nature of the earth, which imparts a glow to the surrounding 
country, strengthened the tradition, and surrounded Mont Pelee 
with that respect which man pays to things of which he stands 
in awe. 

"It is known also that in one of the gorges of this mountain 
there was a place where sulphur was found, and which, for this 
reason, was called by the neighboring inhabitants the sulphur mine. 
Before the tenth of May of the year 1851 Martinique had not been 
affected by earthquakes; but it was known that Guadeloupe had 
suffered on many occasions, and lived in continual fear. 

"On the 5th of August St. Pierre was peacefully resting, the 



Mont Pelee in Slumbek and Action. 101 

town was enjoying that calm slumber which the works of the day 
and the monotony of its habitual life assured it. If any one thought 
of a volcano, it certainly was not the volcano of Pelee. Toward 11 
o'clock that evening a low grumbling, far distant and sinister, was 
heard. At first all confounded it with noises to which they were 
accustomed*— the noises of thunder, the escape of steam from an 
engine whose safety valve is open, or the roar of a flowing river. 

' ' But the noise did not cease, becoming, on the contrary, greater. 
I was on the roof of my dwelling at Fonds-Cavoville, which was the 
nearest of all the sugar plantations to the place whence the noise 
came. After some moments there was a second warning, which I 
mistook for thunder, but which became so continuous and so strange 
that I was called below by the farm hands. 

' ' l You don 't understand the noise, then ? ' they cried to me. 

' ' ■ Yes, ' I said ; ' it is thunder. ' 

1 ' ' No, ' they said ; ' it is Mont Pelee who rumbles. ' 

' ' I looked at the sky, the mountain, the earth, but saw nothing, 
and continued to think that the noise was thunder only. The re- 
mainder of the night was passed in great anxiety. We saw passing- 
over the fields many torches, indicating the fright of a great num- 
ber of persons, at the same time others passed along the highway 
to the churches of the town to implore divine mercy. They did not 
know any more than we, and replied to our questions only with 
these lugubrious words: 'The sulphur mine is boiling.' " 

MONT PELEE'S DEATH KNELL. 

It is interesting to note that during the week preceding the 
terrible destruction of St. Pierre, old Mont Pelee, as if loath to de- 
stroy the people who had so long lived beneath the shadow of its 
mighty crest, had repeatedly given warning of the impending dan- 
ger, and it seems sad that the inhabitants of St. Pierre were not in 
places of safety when the blow came. 

For days ominous thunders were heard from the gigantic moun- 
tain, and smoke and ashes issued from the crater, but the warnings 
were little heeded, and the people generally went about their work 
with hopeful hearts not realizing the awful fate that awaited 



102 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

them. They had heard the ominous growling many times and the 
smoke seemed joroduced so normally that it was permissible for 
even those who were inclined to look on the dark side not to dread 
a catastrophe. At Fort de France, where the agitation of Mont 
Pelee attracted, as it went on, much attention, any anxiety which 
existed gradually died down, and when, May 5, a violent eruption 
of mud, the hot ashes having been mingled with water in the crater, 
overwhelmed Guerin's works, killing twenty-three persons, and the 
river in the north of the island, now swollen by a muddy torrent, 
noisily overflowed, it was generally believed that no further erup- 
tion would occur. 

UNDERSTOOD THE WARNING. 

Yet it is certain that a few understood the warnings. Among 
these was the Hon. Thomas T. Prentis, United States consul, for 
the following letter by Mrs. Prentis to her sister, Miss Alice M. 
Frye, who lives in Melrose, Mass., was written shortly before the 
disaster : 

"My Dear Sister: This morning the whole population of the 
city is on the alert and every eye is directed toward Mont Pelee, 
an extinct volcano. Everybody is afraid that the volcano has taken 
into its heart to burst forth and destroy the whole island. 

' ' Fifty-one years ago Mont Pelee burst forth with terrific force 
and destroyed everything within a radius of several miles. For 
several days the mountain has been bursting forth in flame and 
immense quantities of lava are flowing down its sides. 

' ' All the inhabitants are going up to see it. There is not a horse 
to be had on the island, those belonging to the natives being kept 
in readiness to leave at a moment's notice. 

"Last Wednesday, which was April 23, I was in my room with 
little Christine, and we heard three distinct shocks. They were so 
great that we supposed at first there was some one at the door, but 
Christine went and found no one there. The first report was loud 
and the second and third were so great that dishes were thrown 
from the shelves and the house was rocked. 

"We can see Mont Pelee from the rear windows of our house, 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 103 

and although it is nearly four miles away, we can hear the roar of 
the fire and lava issuing from it. 

"The city is covered with ashes, and clouds of smoke have been 
over our heads for the last five days. The smell of sulphur is so 
strong that horses on the streets stop and snort. Some of them are 
obliged to give up, drop in their harness, and die from suffocation. 
Many of the people are obliged to wear wet handkerchiefs over their 
faces to protect them from strong fumes of sulphur. 

"My husband assures me that there is no immediate danger, 
and when there is the least particle of danger we will leave the 
place. There is an American schooner, the R. J. Morse, in the har- 
bor, and she will remain here for at least two weeks. If the vol- 
cano becomes very bad we shall embark at once and go out to sea. 
The papers in this city are asking if we are going to experience 
another earthquake similar to that which struck here some fifty 
years ago." 

FATE EXPECTED. 

Mrs. James Smith, of Minneapolis, Minn., sister-in-law of U. S. 
Consul Louis Ayme at Gaudeloupe, was a guest of the family of 
U. S. Consul T. T. Prentis at St. Pierre a year ago, being then on 
a tour of the islands with her brother. 

She says that Mrs. Prentis told her at that time that she and her 
husband did not expect to leave the island alive. 

Mr. Prentis and Col. Ayme had made a critical examination of 
the volcano and of the island, and agreed that a terrible disaster 
was inevitable at some time. 

FELT HER FATE NEAR. 

A Marseilles merchant received the following from a married 
sister at St. Pierre, dated May 4th, four days before the city was 
overwhelmed. 

'-'I write under the gloomiest impressions, though I hope I 
exaggerate the situation. This unchaining of the forces of nature 
is horrible. Since last month I have wished myself far from this 
place. My husband laughs; but I see he is full of anxiety and is 



104 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

trying to show a brave face in order to raise my courage. He tells 
me to go. How can I go alone! 

"M. Guerin says the women and children should flee as from an 
epidemic, but that the men, especially those situated like my hus- 
band and himself, must stay, as otherwise it would cause a general 
panic. 

"All this is very sad. The heat is suffocating. We cannot 
leave anything open, as the dust enters everywhere, burning our 
faces and eyes. I have not the courage to attend to the necessary 
household duties. Fortunately we have food, but we have no heart 
even to eat. All the crops are ruined. It is always thus in these 
accursed countries. AVhen it is not a cyclone it is an earthquake, 
and when it is not a drought it is a volcanic eruption. ' ' 

The day following the eruption of Mont Pelee letters were re- 
ceived by steamer, which also brought the latest copies of Les Colo- 
nies, the only daily paper published in St. Pierre, one of which, 
elated May 3, announces that an excursion arranged for the next 
day, to Mont Pelee, had been postponed, as the crater was inac- 
cessible, adding that notice would be issued when the excursion 
would take place. It made no mention of the volcanic disturbance. 
But extracts from personal letters prove that some recognized the 
danger and were contemplating plans of action should future de- 
velopments justify their fears. A letter received by Eaoul Savon, 
member of the firm of Plissonneau & Co., said : 

LETTERS TELLING THE STORY OF DANGER. 

' ' Old Mont Pelee is smoking again this morning, the first time 
in fifty years." 

The letter was written April 25 and the fact was only casually 
mentioned in the course of a business letter. 

Another reads : "St. Pierre presents an aspect unknown to the 
natives. It is a city sprinkled with gray snow, a winter scene with- 
out cold. 

"The inhabitants of the neighborhood are abandoning their 
houses, villas, and cottages, and are flocking to the city. It is a 
curious pellmell of women, children, and bare-footed peasants, big,, 
black fellows, loaded with household goods. 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 105 

"The air is oppressive; your nose burns. Are we going to die 
asphyxiated ! What has to-morrow in store for us 1 A flow of lava, 
rain of stones, or a cataclysm from the sea? Who can tell! Will 
give you my last thought if I must die." 

Still another letter says: "My calmness astonishes me. I 
am awaiting the event tranquilly. My only suffering is from the 
dust, which penetrates everywhere, even through closed windows 
and doors. We are all calm. Mamma is not a bit anxious. 

"Edith alone is frightened. If death awaits us there will be a 
numerous conrpany to leave the world. Will it be by fire or as- 
phyxia ? It will be what God wills. You will have our last thoughts. 
Tell brother Kobert that we are still alive. This will, perhaps, be no 
longer true when this letter reaches you. ' ' 

The Edith mentioned was a woman visitor who was among 
the rescued. This and other letters inclosed samples of the 
ashes, which fell over the doomed town. The ashes are a bluish- 
gray impalpable powder, resembling newly ground flour and 
slightly smelling of sulphur. 

Another letter written during the afternoon of May 5 says : 

"The population of the neighborhood of the mountain is flock- 
ing to the city. Business is suspended, the inhabitants are panic- 
stricken and the firemen are sprinkling the streets and roofs to set- 
tle the ashes, which are filling the air. ' ' 

WARNING GIVEN BY WILD ANIMALS. 

Early in April the wild animals left the vicinity of Pelee, even 
snakes, which were ordinarily in great number on the slopes, de- 
serting them. Cattle showed uneasiness and dogs barked at night 
and sought the company of their masters, showing every sign of 
fear. Late in April rumblings were heard, but Mont Pelee had 
been so long dormant that the people in the valleys laughed at the 
warnings. 

THE GOVERNOR'S REPORT. 

At about this time the unrest became general and a scientific 
commission, presided over by the governor, M. Mouttet, assembled 



106 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

in St. Pierre on May 7, the clay before the calamity, for the purpose 
of studying the phenomena of the volcanic disturbances of Mor.t 
Pelee. 

It has since been stated and probably with accuracy, that the 
members of this commission agreed that the relative position of the 
craters and the valleys debouching on the sea were such that the 
scientists could not affirm that the security of St. Pierre was com- 
plete, yet this announcement was so construed by the Governor to 
the people and presented in such a way as to allay the fears of the 
frightened citizens. 

During the night of Wednesday the detonations had ceased and 
only fine ashes, like rain, fell on St. Pierre. As this continued the 
governor, M. Mouttet, who was then at Fort de France, tried to 
stop the panic which the volcanic disturbance caused. 

He declared the danger would not increase and sent a detach- 
ment of soldiers to prevent a general exodus of the inhabitants. 

Indignation against Governor Mouttet grows as the panic of 
the survivors subsides. It is remembered that while Mont Pelee 
was threatening and giving warning of the disaster it was about to 
work, the governor refused to permit any general exodus from St. 
Pierre. The sincerity of his belief in the safety of the people is 
partially proven by the fact that only a few hours later he, with his 
wife, went to St. Pierre. Thus it happened that they, with the com- 
mission, perished with the unfortunate victims. 

ASHES AND SMOKE— MONT PELEE'S WARNING. 

A native named Rivette, who was a civil functionary in St. 
Pierre, tells this rational story of the threatenings of the volcano : 

1 ' There was a suspicion of trouble from Mont Pelee, ' ' he said, 
"as far back as Tuesday of last week. We did not notice anything 
in town, but some of the planters living up near the mountain— it 
is only five miles north of us— told our merchants that rumblings 
had been heard under the ground along the mountain side. When 
these reports were repeated the next day and later, we all began to 
look out for an eruption. Not that we were frightened, not at all. 
Except a few gentlemen that owned estates immediately about Mont 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 107 

Pelee and were worried lest they would lose their crops and their 
lands as well from the shower of ashes or lava— except these few, 
no one in St. Pierre had any other idea but that the eruption, when 
it came, would prove a novel spectacle. 

"And when the eruption actually did begin, and the first puffs 
of smoke were followed by little showers of ashes, we all hurried 
up to our 'upper town' along the south side of the harbor to enjoy 
the sight. We were delighted and grateful to Providence for this 
splendid entertainment that every one could see. 

"The next morning the ashes grew thicker, and a north wind 
drifted them down towards us. As they began falling and powder- 
ing the green tree tops a delicate gray- white, as the ladies' heads 
are powdered in the old portraits in the palace at Fort de France, 
our children pretended that the snow was falling. ' Iceland ! ' ' Ice- 
land ! ' the little ones screamed. But though the white powder was 
harmless enough, it became too thick for comfort. It blew in our 
eyes, sifted down our necks, and was carried into our houses. The 
goods in the shops were ruined, the children and sick people were 
getting half suffocated. Some persons were frightened by Sunday 
morning, and they got ready to leave on the first vessel going south- 
ward. Indeed, a number of families, especially those that had in- 
valids in their household or young children, sailed to Fort de 
France, and a number of the poorer people that could get away 
started into the interior. 

"Wednesday night the eruption increased somewhat, but not 
enough to terrify us. We could see now the shoots of flame that 
the grandmothers had spoken of and sometimes a river of golden 
lava would surge over the side of the crater and throw sparks high 
into the air. 

"Every vessel that could be induced to go down the coast was 
filled with passengers, and the country roads were crowded with 
carts. Yet big vessels stayed off the harbor, nearly a dozen of 
them, I should say, several flying the American flag, a large English 
steamer, and the telegraph company's steamer that was at work 
just off St. Pierre. The captains evidently thought that if the 
eruption grew dangerous they could hoist anchor and sail off. But 
those vessels will not sail away again in this world.' * 



108 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

A PROPHECY FULFILLED. 

Research into scientific works develops the statement that there 
would be an earthquake in the Lesser Antilles about this time. 
The prophecy was made soon after the earthquake which devastated 
parts of the West Indies in 1851, it being said by scientists then 
that the volcanoes on these islands, though quiescent, would be likely 
to upturn the earth in that region in about fifty years. While this 
intelligence was widely known, people of modern times were in- 
clined to disregard its potency in a large measure, believing that 
the volcanoes of the Antilles were nearly extinct. 

At the same time the government experts in Washington ex- 
pressed no surprise when the news was published that St. Pierre 
had been destroyed. 

NO PLACE LIKE HOME. 

It is difficult to understand how it was that a general exodus 
of the population did not take place before May 8, except, indeed, 
the explanation be found in one word, "home." It is one thing 
to bid a people depart from the city in which their homes and their 
interests are centered ; but quite another thing to find people willing 
to go. To most of them, no doubt, the question, "whither shall we 
go ! " was the crushing obstacle in the way of their flight. 

Within the past few days the question has come to many, "Why 
should people live in such close proximity to a volcano that they 
are at all times in danger of destruction by an eruption of the 
crater?" A person who recently returned from a country where 
there are a number of volcanoes told the writer that it is impossi- 
ble to prevent residents of the country from building houses almost 
under the eaves, so to speak, of the crater. They know that some 
day an eruption is sure to come, but they count on getting away 
safely, and in the majority of cases they succeed. Then they wait 
the long period of time necessary, sometimes a year and a half or 
two years, for the ground to cool so that they may again take up 
their residence in the old spot. Why do they do this? Because it 
i$ their home. They have spent their days in the vicinity of the 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 109 

crater. They marvelled at it as children ; they grew familiar with 
it as young men and women ; they do not fear it in old age, and 
they would not feel at home unless beneath its shadow. 

Galveston, Texas, was inundated by the sea because it was 
built upon the sea's level. This was known, but the people re- 
mained. What is more interesting is the spectacle of the people re- 
building the city in the same place, although it is not believed that 
the sea can be made either more safe or more merciful than before. 

HUMAN NATURE BLIND. 

In all probability the omens were sufficiently anticipatory to have 
given the people opportunity to escape had they read the lesson. 
But history has shown that human nature is singularly blind and 
deaf in such matters, and will take very long chances. It is the 
unexpected that happens, and average men don't expect or suspect 
more than they are compelled to do in the direction of misfortune. 

The explanation is probably to be found in humanity's usual 
carelessness of impending danger. Pelee had been regarded as an 
extinct volcano for generations. It was probably thought that the 
mountain, so long quiescent, had done its worst when it burned a 
mill and showered the town with ashes. Few thought of a greater 
horror. So, when the final disaster came, 30,000 people were 
caught like so many rats in a trap. There was nothing for them 
to do but die in the utmost agcziy, in the midst of a scene of the 
most utter horror. 

A tourist wrote May 6 saying: "We spent the night at the 
foot of one of the crosses of the mission, which at that time 
were planted at the entrance to nearly all the churches. With 
the day we learned that the people of St. Pierre had not been 
less frightened than ourselves. The noise had been heard by 
every one, and at daybreak it was found that the roofs of the houses 
and the pavements of the streets and the leaves of the trees were 
covered with light ashes, which gave to the town the appearance of 
an European village when covered by the first frost of autumn. 
These ashes covered the whole country between the town and Mont 
Pelee, and, it is said, as f ar as Carbet. A river called Riviere 



110 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

Blanche flowed a dark stream resembling a solution of ashes or 
slate, the trace of which at the mouth of the river was seen far out 
at sea. 

' ' The change in the topography has caused the damming of the 
rivers, and finding no new beds they are flooding the country. Hills 
and valleys are constantly forming. Mont Pelee and the hills sur- 
rounding it still rumble ominously, terrific electric storms burst 
forth suddenly, and as suddenly subside, and day is still turned 
into night by the great clouds of dust." 

RENEWED ERUPTION. 

A message dated May 18 received from Fort de France says: 
' ' Mont Pelee is again in eruption, and the people of Martinique are 
in a renewed state of terror and panic. Fort de France for six 
hours has been literally bombarded by stones from the infuriated 
volcano. Houses were destroyed and fires kindled in many quar- 
ters. With the stones fell hot mud and ashes, and the air was so 
filled with volcanic dust as to be almost suffocating. The present 
eruption is said to be even more violent than that of May 8th, though 
the loss of life is necessarily less. 

"For many hours the earth was shaken to its very foundation, 
and down upon the already indescribable scene where once stood 
the beautiful city of St. Pierre, great boulders, red hot, were 
hurled. Ashes fell in such torrents that the site of the city now 
resembles a great, desolate plain. Thousands are fleeing from 
Fort de France. Some have gone into the mountains, facing al- 
most inevitable starvation in preference to the terrible fate of 
death in a sea of molten lava, while others have gone to other 
islands, trusting themselves to the mercy of strangers. 

"The ships in the harbor are loaded to their utmost capacity, 
ready to carry their human freight to safety at the appearance of 
the next great danger. The bay is filled with small boats, from 
which the terrified natives are begging to be taken aboard the al- 
ready over-crowded ships; others who cannot obtain boats risk 
their lives by swimming out to the ships. 

"Lieutenant McCormick, commander of the Potomac, an Amer- 




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THE LATE U. S. CONSUL AT ST. PIERRE AND HIS FAMILY, ALL OF WHOM 
LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT DISASTER. 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 113 

ican vessel which was sent down to make observations on Mont 
Pelee, reports "that new fissures have been formed in the sides of 
Mont Pelee, from which wide streams of lava are flowing. The 
land cannot be seen for the steam which rises from the boiling- 
waters along the coast. 

"The Potomac rescued a party of refugees, which were turned 
over to the relief committee at Fort de France." 

PANIC ON MAY 20TH. 

Another message received on May 20th says a panic ensued 
on the 20th, when the sun, rising, shone faintly through a 
cloud of volcanic dust, which rolled and whirled as clouds 
of flame in the sky. Citizens and soldiers were equally frantic ; 
some screamed, others prayed for protection from above. 
After the panic subsided hundreds rushed toward the mountains. 
Added to the terror caused by fear and starvation there is a lack 
of water. All the natural water supplies have been polluted by 
the lava. The mountain roads are lined with terror-stricken na- 
tives seeking refuge. Many fall dying by the way, too weak from 
fatigue and hunger. 

' ' Two men endeavoring to get a glimpse of Mont Pelee from in- 
land penetrated the island as far as they could. They report that 
the whole northern half of the island is running with molten lava 
and hot, sulphurous mud." 

A cable message from Fort de France dated May 22 says : 

' ' The American scientists who reached here on the cruiser Dixie 
declare that the entire island is in grave danger. The scientists 
lost no time in visiting the ruins of St. Pierre. The northern city 
is now entirely buried and new fissures are opening. 

REPORT FROM A MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE. 

M. Clerc, a member of the Legislature of Martinique, who re- 
cently explored the vicinity of Mont Pelee, said: 

"I started on Friday last for Mont Pelee by the road leading 
along the coast from Basse Pointe and, accompanied by M. Tel- 



114 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

loame Chancele, chief engineer of the sugar works, I reached a 
height of 1,235 meters without difficulty, and was able to ascertain 
that the present crater is about 300 meters in diameter. On the 
east it is overlooked by the Morne la Croix, the culminating point 
of the island, having an altitude of 1,350 meters, which is complete- 
ly crumbled and mined at its base, as a result of the volcanic action, 
and might easily collapse. The Morne Petit Bon Homme has an 
incandescent aspect. 

' ' In order to make known our presence at the point where we 
stood I waved a piece of white cloth, attached to a stick, in the air, 
which was replied to by a corresponding signal from an inhab- 
itant of Morne Rouge, who signaled to me in this manner in order 
to show that he saw us. 

"We felt a number of electric commotions and our shoes were 
damaged by the heat. 

"The pond which was situated near Morne la Croix is com- 
pletely dried up. 

"The iron cross which stood at the foot of the mountain has 
been melted. Only the base of the masonry on which the cross 
stood and the lower part of the foot of the cross can be seen. 

' ' The rims of the crater have much changed in appearance, and 
the heat where we stood was intense, and the whole aspect of the 
mountain was terrifying. Stones fell around us and we picked 
up large pieces of sulphur, which, however, we were unable to re- 
tain. The whole spot was charged with electricity, which became 
so violent that we were obliged to retreat. 

"Our descent from the mountain was more difficult than our 
ascent. A blinding rain of ashes fell upon us, and the engineer 
was nearly killed by a large stone which fell near him. We suc- 
ceeded in reaching Basse Pointe on our return, after having been 
four hours on the mountain under the most dangerous circum- 
stances. ' ' 

MANY LEAVE MARTINIQUE. 

A letter from Fort de France dated May 23 says : ' ' The sky is 
now clear and the population calm, but despite this favorable 
change in the situation many families have left Fort de France by 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 115 

the French steamers Versailles and the Ville de Tanger for the 
Island of Trinidad and for Cayenne, French Guiana. 

"This, with the 1,200 persons who have gone to the Island of 
Guadeloupe and many others who have sought refuge at St. Lucia 
and other islands, has lessened the population considerably. 

' ' Besides these some 2,000 people have left for the southern parts 
of the Island of Martinique, where 3,000 refugees have now assem- 
bled. This desertion of Fort de France has resulted in the disor- 
ganization of many trades. A number of bakers have been com- 
pelled to close their stores, owing to the fact that their employes are 
among those who have fled. 

"The French cruiser Tage, having Admiral Servan on board, 
arrived here yesterday evening. She reported that Mont Pelee now 
presents more assuring prospect. The clouds of smoke leaving the 
crater mingle with the clouds in the sky and do not have the threat- 
ening aspect which they formerly presented. A new crater has 
formed in the vicinity of Ajoupa Bouillon. 

RIVER RUNS HOT WATER. 

"A locality known as Camae Trianon is causing a good deal of 
anxiety at present. The Capote River is running with hot water. 

"A torrential downpour of rain yesterday morning washed off 
the ashes from the vegetation on the mountain. 

' ' The United States steamer Potomac made her usual trip to St. 
Pierre to-day with another party of scientists. She found the con- 
ditions there unchanged from yesterday. The top of the mountain 
was clearly visible for a considerable time. Captain McLean of 
the United States steamer Cincinnati, who has carefully observed 
Mont Pelee, agrees with other experts in reporting that a new 
crater has been formed below the old one. In the new crater 
there is a great cinder cone, more than 100 feet high, from 
which steam and volcanic matter is constantly pouring. 

CALL IT EXPLOSIVE VOLCANO. 

"It is now the unanimous opinion of the scientists that this is an 
explosive volcano, no real lava or moya xock material having l>e<m 



116 Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 

emitted— only mud, steam, gases and fragments of the old crater 
beds. The scientists compare the mountain's outthrow to the 
steam of a boiler in which the pressure rises to bursting point, and 
they think it possible that a more violent outbreak may occur. 

' ' The scientists remark that the explosions have occurred at pro- 
gressively longer intervals and that they have also been progres- 
sively more violent. Thus there had been three light eruptions of 
ashes. On May 5 there was an overflow of mud, which caused the 
destruction of Usine Guerin; on May 8 there was the outburst 
which destroyed St. Pierre, and on May 20, or after an interval of 
twelve days, the last tremendous outburst occurred. 

"A new period of rest is now on and one of two things may hap- 
pen. The pressure may be confined for a still longer period and 
then explode with still greater violence, spreading destruction over 
a vast area, or the mountain may remain quiescent for another 
half century." 

Another letter from the same source dated May 25 says Mont 
Pelee is split from peak to base, and that the fissure is 400 yards 
wide. 

REAL CAUSE OF THE DISASTER. 

Professor Robert T. Hill, United States Government geologist 
and head of the expedition sent by the National Geographical So- 
ciety to Martinique, chartered a steamer and carefully examined 
the coast as far north as Port de Macouba, at the extreme end of the 
island, making frequent landings. 

After landing at Le Precheur, five miles north of St. Pierre, he 
walked through an area of active vulcanism to the latter place and 
made a minute examination of the various phenomena disclosed. 

In addition to his work of investigation the professor rescued in 
his steamer many poor people of Le Precheur, who had ventured 
back after deserting their homes and found themselves in awful 
danger. 

PROFESSOR HILL'S REPORT. 

Professor Hill's report is as follows: "The zone of the catas- 
trophe in Martinique forms an elongated oval, containing on land 



Mont Pelee in Slumber and Action. 117 

about eight square miles of destruction. This oval is partly over 
the sea. The land part is bounded by lines running from Le 
Preeheur to the peak of Mont Pelee, thence curving around to Car- 
bet. 

t i There were three well-marked zones. First, a center of anni- 
hilation, in which all life, vegetable and animal, was utterly de- 
stroyed, the greater northern part of St. Pierre was in this zone ; 
second, a zone of singeing, blistering flame, which also was fatal to 
all life, killing all men and animals, burning the leaves on the trees, 
and scorching, but not utterly destroying, the trees themselves; 
third, a large outer, non-destructive zone of ashes, wherein some 
vegetation was injured. 

FOCUS OF ANNIHILATION. 

"The focus of annihilation was the new crater midway between 
the sea and the peak of Mont Pelee, where now exists a new area 
of active vulcanism, with hundreds of fumaroles or miniature vol- 
canoes. The new crater is now vomiting black, hot mud, which is 
falling into the sea. Both craters, the old and the new, are active. 

"Mushroom-shaped steam explosions constantly ascend from 
the old crater, while heavy ash-laden clouds float horizontally from 
the new crater. The old ejects steam, smoke, mud, pumice, and 
lapilli, but no molten lava. 

DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE. 

"The salient topography of the region is unaltered. The de- 
struction of St. Pierre was due to the new crater. The explosion 
had great superficial force, acting in radial directions, as is evi- 
denced by the dismounting and carrying for yards the guns in the 
battery on the hill south of St. Pierre and the statue of the Virgin 
in the same locality, and also by the condition of the ruined houses 
in St. Pierre. 

"According to the testimony of some persons there was an ac- 
companying flame. Others think the incandescent cinders and the 
force of their ejection were sufficient to cause the destruction." 



CHAPTER V. 
QUICK BELIEF FOR THE SUFFERERS. 

Hunger and Destitution of Survivors — Message of President Roosevelt— Quick 
Action of Congress — $200,000 Appropriated at Once — Activity of Navy 
and War Departments — Many Vessels to the Belief — The World Hears 
and Heeds the Cry of the Destitute — Nations Respond — King Edward 
Sends $5,000 as a Personal Contribution — President Loubet Gives $4,000. 

No sooner had the sad news of death and devastation come from 
the stricken island than charitable hearts realized that the sur- 
vivors would at once need food, clothing and medicines. 

The first to respond to the appeal for succor was the United 
States. President Roosevelt sent to Congress at noon May 12th a 
message asking an appropriation of $500,000 for the relief of the 
sufferers, and before nightfall a bill appropriating $200,000 had 
passed both houses and received the President's signature. Not a 
voice was raised against the bill in the Senate, and in the House 
only nine members could be found whose constitutional scruples 
would not let them vote yea. 

MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 

President Roosevelt's message to Congress was as follows: 
"One of the greatest calamities in history has fallen upon our 
neighboring Island of Martinique. The consul of the United 
States has telegraphed from Fort de France, under date of yester- 
day, that the disaster is complete ; that the City of St. Pierre has 
ceased to exist, and that the American consul and his family have 
perished. He is informed that 30,000 people have lost their lives, 
and that 50,000 are homeless and hungry ; that there is urgent need 
of all kinds of provisions, and that the visit of vessels for the work 
of supply and rescue is imperatively required. 

' ' The government of France, while expressing their thanks for 
the marks of sympathy which have reached them from America, 

118 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 119 

inform us that Fort de France and the entire Island of Martinique 
are still threatened. They therefore request that, for the purpose 
of rescuing the people who are in such deadly peril and threatened 
with starvation, the government of the United States may send 
as soon as possible the means of transporting them from the 
stricken island. 

"The Island of St. Vincent and perhaps others in that region 
are also seriously menaced by the calamity which has taken so ap- 
palling a form in Martinique. 

' ' I have directed the Departments of the Treasury, of War and 
of the Navy to take such measures for the relief of these stricken 
people as lies within the executive discretion, and I earnestly com- 
mend this case of unexampled disaster to the generous considera- 
tion of Congress. For this purpose I recommend that an appro- 
priation of $500,000 be made, to be immediately available." 

As stated above, the action of Congress was prompt and gen- 
erous. No time was lost, and Congress at once passed the follow- 
ing resolution: 

TEXT OF KESOLUTION. 

The resolution as adopted reads: 

"To enable the President of the United States to procure and 
distribute among the suffering and destitute people of the islands 
of the French West Indies such provisions, clothing, medicines and 
other necessary articles and to take such other steps as he shall 
deem advisable for the purpose of rescuing and succoring the peo- 
ple who are in peril and threatened with starvation, the sum of 
$200,000 is hereby appropriated. 

"In the execution of this act the President is requested to ask 
and obtain the approval of the French government, and he is here- 
by authorized to employ any vessels of the United States navy, and 
to charter and employ any other suitable steamships or vessels." 

So appalling were the reports received of the disasters that on the 
following day, May 13th, a joint committee of the House and Senate 
met and discussed the advisability of giving the full amount recom- 
mended by the President in his message. The decision was to the 
effect that it was wise to await developments. 



120 Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 

Tlie part of the joint resolution adopted requesting the Presi- 
dent to ascertain whether the extension of our aid would be ac- 
ceptable to France had been anticipated by the French government. 
The President's statement that that government had requested 
that ships be supplied to carry away the survivors of the catastro- 
phe at Martinique was at first supposed to be based upon the state- 
ment of the Governor of Martinique to United States Consul 
Ayme; however, the request came directly from the French gov- 
ernment through Ambassador Cambon, who personally presented 
the matter to the President. 

PROMPTNESS OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 

President Roosevelt did not wait for Congress to act before be- 
ginning preparations for the dispatch of relief, feeling sure that 
such action would be prompt and favorable. With keenest per- 
sonal interest in the preparation for extending a helping hand to 
the sufferers, he called Secretary Hay in and a plan of work was 
mapped out, Mr. Hay being charged with the duty of acquainting 
Secretaries Root and Moody with the President's wishes. The 
character of the President's instructions to the departments con- 
cerned in the relief work may be gathered from the text of the fol- 
lowing letter, which was delivered to Secretary Moody, after the 
President had seen Consul Ayme 's message : 

' ' The President directs me to express to you his wish that your 
department go to the furthest limits of executive discretion for the 
rescue and relief of the afflicted islands in the Caribbean. 

"John Hay." 

The Treasury Department was instructed to co-operate. This 
action gave to the work of relief the entire force of the revenue 
cutters and the medical officers of the marine hospital service. 

OFFICIAL DETAILS ARE GIVEN. 

This message from United States Consul Ayme, who was sent 
to Fort de France from his post at Guadeloupe, was received by 
Secretary of State Hay: 



Quick Relief eoe the Suefeeees. 



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AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT. 

Bill of health of the British steamer Yestop, Captain Souter, which arrived iu Balti- 
more May 14th from St. Pierre, Martinique. This document, as will be seen, was signed by- 
United States CodsuI Thomas T. Prentis, on May 2, six days before his death iu the awful dis- 
aster. A picture of the Ycstoe iu also given. 



122 Quick Relief foe the Sufferers. 

"Fort de France, May 11.— The disaster is complete. The 
city wiped out. Consul Prentis and his family are dead. Governor 
says 30,000 have perished, 50,000 are homeless and hungry. He 
suggests that the Red Cross be asked to send codfish, flour, beans, 
rice, salt meats and biscuit as quickly as possible. Visits of war 
vessels valuable. Ayme." 

The War Department, with its well-organized supply depart- 
ments, was regarded as in better position than any other institu- 
tion to take charge of the relief measures except that it had no 
means of transportation. The Sedgwick, the only army transport 
on the Atlantic coast, was out of condition. Fortunately the navy 
had a handy ship in the Dixie, which arrived at New York a short 
time before from a training cruise. Having been a merchant 
freighter, she was admirably adapted to the service required of her. 

SUPPLIES AND MEDICINE. 

All the machinery of the government was set in motion to hasten 
the departure of the relief ship with supplies and medicine. The 
naval tug Potomac had already sailed from San Juan, Porto Rico, 
for the scene of the disaster, and the Cincinnati left San Domingo 
May 11th. 

Secretary Moody immediately telegraphed orders to Captain 
Berry, the commander of the Dixie, to ship army supplies to be 
offered him and to sail at the earliest possible moment for Mar- 
tinique. He was authorized to extend relief to other islands if he 
found any necessity for so doing. The scientific departments of 
the government availed of the opportunity, sending on the Dixie 
two professors from the geological survey. A Harvard volcano 
specialist was also given passage. 

WAR DEPARTMENT PLANS. 

Adjutant General Corbin, Quartermaster General Ludington, 
Commissary General Weston and Surgeon General Sternberg were 
charged by Secretary Root with the arrangement of that part of 
the relief measures pertaining to the War Department. Official 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 123 

orders were dictated for the guidance of the three supply depart- 
ments, giving the scheme of distribution as follows: 

Three medical officers, with $5,000 worth of medical stores ; one 
subsistence officer, with $70,000 in stores, consisting of rice, dried 
fish, sugar, coffee, tea, canned soups, condensed cream, salt, pepper 
and vinegar; one officer of the quartermaster's department, with 
$20,000 worth of clothing supplies for men, women and children. 

Secretary Root indorsed the work as follows: 

"The above distribution is approved, and the purchases will 
be made ready for shipment." 

The orders directed that the officers and stores be sent on the 
Dixie, to be distributed at such points as might be designated by 
the navy officer in command of the Dixie, under instructions given 
by the Secretary of the Navy. The medical officers were to ren- 
der such medical aid as lay in their power in addition to the dis- 
tribution of medical supplies. 

So comprehensively laid were the plans of the War Department, 
even before the passage of the joint resolution providing for the 
relief of the volcano sufferers, that there was really very little re- 
maining for the officials to do thereafter. 

The plans of the commissary department, made after careful 
consideration of the news dispatches from the Antilles, contem- 
plated the supply of 40,000 rations for fourteen days. In the 
Navy Department the carefully planned relief measures were car- 
ried forward systematically and rapidly. The Buffalo was or- 
dered to be put in readiness for immediate use as a food and sup- 
ply transport in case it should be decided to send more supplies 
than the Dixie could carry. 

Of the little fleet of naval colliers which was placed at the dis- 
posal of the relief workers by Admiral Bradford, the Leonidas, 
which was discharging her cargo of coal at Fort Royal, was se- 
lected as the most suitable one to dispatch to Martinique, and or- 
ders forwarded to load her with supplies and get her under way 
as soon as possible. 

Secretary Hay telegraphed to Consul Ayme to ascertain the 
conditions of Martinique with regard to the fresh water supply, 
and if it should be found that such water was needed the tenders 



124 Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 

at Norfolk and at Key West, which already were being loaded by 
orders from Admiral Bradford in anticipation of need for them, 
would immediately make for the little island. 

COMMITTEE NAMED BY PRESIDENT. 

The following was issued from the White House: 
' ' The President has appointed a committee to receive funds for 
the relief of the sufferers from the recent catastrophes in Martin- 
ique and St. Vincent. The gentlemen appointed from each city 
are asked to collect and receive the funds from their localities and 
neighborhoods as expeditiously as possible, and forward them to 
Cornelius N. Bliss, treasurer of the New York committee, which 
committee will act as central distributing point for the country. 
The President directs all the postmasters throughout the country, 
and requests the presidents of all national banks, to act as agents 
for the collection of contributions and to forward the same at once 
to Mr. Bliss at New York. The postmasters are also directed to 
report to the Postmaster General, within ten days, any funds col- 
lected on this account. 

"The President appeals to the public to contribute generously 
for the relief of those upon whom this appalling calamity has 
fallen, and asks that the contributions be sent in as speedily as 
possible. The gentlemen designated on the several committees 
are requested to act at once. 

NAMES OE THE COMMITTEEMEN. 

"The following are the committees: 

"New York— The Hon. Cornelius N. Bliss, treasurer; Morris 
K. Jesup, John Clanin, Jacob H. Schifr, William R.. Corwine. 

"Boston— Augustus Hemenway, Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, Henry 
Lee Higginson. 

"Philadelphia— Charles Emory Smith, Charles C. Harrison, 
Joseph G. Darlington, Clement A. Griscom, John H. Converse. 

"Baltimore— James A. Gary. 

"Washington— Charles C. Glover. 



Quick Relief foe the Sufferers. 125 

"Pittsburg— A. J. Logan, H. C. Frick. 

"Buffalo— John G. Milburn, Carlton Sprague. 

"Cleveland— Myron T. Herrick, Samuel Mather. 

"Cincinnati— Jacob M. Schmidlapp, Briggs S. Cunningham. 

"Chicago— J. J. Mitchell, Marvin Hiighitt, Marshall Field, 
Graeme Stewart. 

"Milwaukee-F. G. Bigelow, Charles F. Pfister, Fred Pabst. 

"Minneapolis— Thomas Lowry, J. J. Shevelin. 

"St. Paul— Kenneth Clark, Theodore Schurmeir. 

"Detroit— Don M. Dickinson. 

"St. Louis— Charles Parsons, Adolphus Busch, Robert S. 
Bookings. 

"Louisville— Thomas Bullitt. 

"Atlanta— Robert J. Lowry. 

"Kansas City— W. B. Clark, Charles Campbell. 

"Omaha— John C. Wharton, Victor B. Caldwell. 

"Denver-D. H. Moffatt." 

With food enough on board to supply the entire population of 
Martinique for a week, the cruiser Dixie sailed late on the after- 
noon of May 14 from New York. 

The Army Building was the scene of unwonted activity all day, 
owing to the lively efforts that were being made to collect the stores 
for the inhabitants of Martinique as speedily as possible. 

"We've not been so busy since the last war," remarked an 
officer, as he mopped his brow and tried to straighten up his wilted 
collar. "All the big dealers want our orders, but in many cases 
their ideas of 'immediate delivery' are very unsatisfactory, and 
mean about as much as the average man's idea of paying cash. 
We are not placing any order except where the dealers have the 
stuff in their warehouses and are willing to contract to have the 
goods on the pier before nightfall." 

NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND RATIONS SENT ON THE DIXIE. 

Never before, even in war time, did the army subsistence de- 
partment make such a record in collecting a shipload of food. It 
was done in twenty-four hours, Colonel P. L. Brainard bringing 



126 Quick Relief foe the Sufferers. 

from Philadelphia three car loads of supplies needed to make up 
the shipment and purchasing the rest in New York. The Dixie's 
cargo was composed of 900,000 rations. It contained: 

Rice, pounds 982,250 

Bread, pounds 214,300 

Codfish, pounds 171,100 

Flour, pounds 85,000 

Sugar, pounds 80,000 

Bacon, pounds 65,375 

Coffee, pounds 16,000 

Ham, pounds 6,160 

Tea, pounds 4,000 

Salt, pounds 4,000 

Baking powder, pounds 3,024 

Currant jelly, pounds 2,880 

Pepper, pounds 250 

Evaporated cream, cans 4,800 

Condensed milk, cans 4,800 

Chicken soup, cans 2,400 

Beef soup, cans 2,400 

Vinegar, gallons 516 

Trousers, pairs 10,000 

Shoes, pairs 10,000 

Socks, pairs 20,000 

Drawers, pairs 2,000 

Shirts, pairs 4,000 

Blouses, pairs 2,000 

Coats, pairs 500 

Tents 1,000 

There are also medical supplies worth $5,000 on board. The 
vessel cast off at 9:30 o'clock May 14. 

SCIENTISTS GO ON DIXIE. 

In addition to the officers and crew, numbering in all 250 men, 
the officers of the army and members of XM hospital corps, the 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 127 

Dixie carried a distinguished party of scientific men. The scien- 
tists aboard were : 

Professor Thomas Augustus Jaggar, instructor of geology in 
Harvard University and an expert in regard to volcanoes. 

Robert T. Hill of the United States Geological Survey. 

Professor I. C. Russell of the University of Michigan. 

Captain C. E. Borchgrevink and Edmund 0. Hovey, geologist 
of the New York Museum of Natural History. 

George Kennan, traveler and author, and eighteen newspaper 
correspondents representing various papers in New York and else- 
where. 

NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE QUICK TO ACT. 

There was no lack of spontaneous offering from all parts of the 
country. At the New York Chamber of Commerce the following 
resolution was proposed by Abram S. Hewitt: 

Whereas, The French Island of Martinique, one of the colonial 
possessions of our ancient and well beloved ally, whose assistance 
at a critical time secured to us the blessings of independence, has 
been overwhelmed by a volcanic eruption, destroying the lives of 
30,000 of its inhabitants, and reducing many more to a state of im- 
pending starvation; 

And, whereas, Other islands in the Caribbean Sea are threat- 
ened with a similar catastrophe, calling for the sympathy and the 
aid of the whole civilized world, 

Therefore, Be It Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of 
the State of New York, mourning for the dead, and full of com- 
passion for the living, thus suddenly reduced to a condition of 
actual starvation, calls upon its members to provide the means for 
immediate succor to its neighbors in their dire distress ; and, with 
that end in view, hereby constitutes a committee of sixty, to be 
named by the president of the chamber, with power to add to their 
numbers and appoint their own officers, whose duty it shall be to 
provide at once for the forwarding of the necessary supplies to be 
secured by the contributions of its members and of such other per- 
sons as may desire to assist in this labor of love and duty. 



128 Quick Relief foe the Sufferers. 

Resolved, That the committee, so constituted, be instructed to 
co-operate with any similar committees which may be constituted 
by other organizations for this purpose, in order to economize 
effort, prevent waste and furnish such adequate supplies as may be 
required by the magnitude of the calamity. 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce indorses the recom- 
mendation of the President of the United States and the action of 
Congress in making a large appropriation of money and the pro- 
visioning of ships and supplies for the relief of the stricken people 
of the ruined islands. 

Resolved, That contributions in money may be sent directly to 
the Chamber of Commerce, whose secretary will promptly acknowl- 
edge the receipt thereof, and pay the same over to the treasurer, 
who may be designated by the general committee. 

Resolved, That the action of His Honor Mayor Low, in ap- 
pealing for public aid, is heartily endorsed, and that any money 
thus provided will be paid into the general fund. 

Resolved, That the wise and energetic action of the president 
of the chamber in promptly securing the cargoes of food now en 
route to the various Windward Islands is heartily approved, and 
that the chamber hereby guarantees the payment of any outlay 
which may thus have been incurred. 

Resolved, That the committee, constituted under these resolu- 
tions, shall meet for organization on Thursday, 15th inst., at 2 
o'clock p. m., at the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce. 

THE ASSEMBLY ROOM FILLED. 

Long before the appointed time for the meeting the assembly 
room of the chamber was well filled with representative men in 
commerce and finance. Alexander E. Orr and Abram S. Hewitt 
held a consultation with President Jesup. There were also pres- 
ent members of the Merchants' Association. 

President Morris K. Jesup of the New York Chamber of Com- 
merce held a conference with Edmond Bruwaert, the French Con- 
sul General; H. C. de Medeuil, of the American Trading Company; 
A. Emilius Outerbridge, the New York agent of the Quebec Steam- 






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Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

STEAMSHIP RORAIMA, DESTROYED AT ST. PIERRE, MAY 8, 1902. 
The above liner, with all on board, was destroyed, consisting of the entire crew and 

several passengers. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

DIVERS FOR MONEY AROUND STEAMSHIP, ST. PIERRE HARBOR. 
The young fellow shown here made his living by diving for coins in the har- 
bor of St. Pierre. He invariably caught them before they reached the 
bottom. He, like many others, lost his life in the 
recent disaster. 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. £31 

ship Line; Henry Hentz and others interested in the trade with 
Martinique. After the conference Mr. Jesup announced that he 
had been conferring with representatives of the shipping: firms 
engaged in the Martinique trade to ascertain what supplies had 
been shipped within the last few weeks to the island and the pos- 
sible consumption, so as to learn, as far as possible, what supplies 
might be on hand on that island for immediate use. 

Mr. Jesup said he had been informed by Major Brainard, of 
the Quartermaster's Department, U. S. A., what the supplies were 
that were being shipped on the United States steamship Dixie. 
After consulting with other members of the chamber he had made 
arrangements to ship by the steamship Fontabelle of the Quebec 
Line, which was to sail on Saturday, supplies best adapted to the 
immediate needs of the survivors, the quantity to be equivalent to 
one thousand barrels. This precaution was taken, Mr. Jesup 
added, so that in case there should be any delay in the sailing of 
the Dixie, or in case of any accident to the vessel, the inhabitants of 
Martinique would be cared for as speedily as possible. 

PROVIDE FOR IMMEDIATE NEEDS. 

This action, together with that taken on Monday in ordering 
the purchase of the supplies aboard the steamship Madiana, on the 
arrival of that ship at Fort de France, Mr. Jesup said he thought 
would go far toward providing for the immediate necessities of 
the people who survived the eruption. 

Mr. Outerbridge said after the conference that he had con- 
curred in the arrangement for the purchase of the cargo of the 
Madiana by the Chamber of Commerce, and that he thought there 
would be no trouble in the taking over of the foodstuffs on that 
vessel, as the destruction of St. Pierre left no one to claim the con- 
signments. He added that the Fontabelle, in addition to taking 
one thousand barrels of supplies from the Chamber of Commerce 
when it sailed, would take quantities of stores from private firms 
which had interests at Martinique and were arranging to send sup- 
plies for distribution on the island. 



132 Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 

MAYOR LOW'S APPEAL. 

The relief movement was general throughout the country. 
In his appeal, issued May 12th, Mayor Low of New York City 
says: "The appalling calamity at Martinique and in the neigh- 
boring islands makes an appeal to the generosity of New York that 
I am sure will not be disregarded. It is evident that help will be 
needed on a large scale and needed promptly. If there are any 
who wish to transmit money for this purpose through the Mayor, 
I shall be glad to receive it and to transmit it to its destination." 

BOSTON URGES AID. 

The committee of seven, appointed by Mayor Collins, issued the 
following appeal: 

The undersigned, a committee selected at the meeting called by 
Mayor Collins to consider the question of raising funds for the 
many thousand sufferers from the recent volcanic eruptions in Mar- 
tinique and adjacent islands, have voted unanimously to issue an 
appeal to the people of this section and to give all an opportunity to 
contribute. 

Our people always have been prompt and liberal in helping the 
afflicted everywhere, and the committee believes that in this instance 
many will desire to do something for the relief of the helpless vic- 
tims of an awful calamity. 

Although the inhabitants of many countries will be contributors 
to other funds, there is great need, and the people of this section 
will not be doing their duty and maintaining the high standard of 
the past unless in this emergency they contribute their share of 
relief. 

Let the response be immediate and generous. 
Contributions should be sent at once to Lee, Higginson & Co., 
Boston. 

(Signed.) Chas. H. Taylor, 

Henry L. Higginson, 
William H. Lincoln, 
T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., 
Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, 
John M. Graham, 
Elwyn 0. Preston. 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 133 

RED CROSS ISSUES APPEAL. 

John M. Wilson, the first vice president of the American Na- 
tional Red Cross Association, issued the following public appeal 
for aid for the sufferers from the Martinique disaster: 

"The American National Red Cross appeals to the people of 
the United States to send money and supplies in aid of the suf- 
ferers at Martinique and St. Vincent. 

"The unparalleled calamity needs no words of eloquence to 
arouse the active aid and sympathy of our people. We therefore 
ask you to act promptly and generously. 

"Money and supplies can be sent to the Hon. Cornelius Bliss 
of New York City, or money may be sent direct to Mr. W. J. 
Flather, the treasurer of the American National Red Cross Asso- 
ciation, at Riggs' Bank, Washington, D. C. 

"All such contributions, whether in money or supplies, in- 
tended for the Red Cross, should be so marked. 

"John M. Wilson, 
"Brigadier General Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., Retired, First 

Vice President American National Red Cross." 

PROCLAMATION OF MAYOR HARRISON, CHICAGO. 

Mayor Harrison of Chicago issued a proclamation as follows: 
"To the People of Chicago: The catastrophe in Martinique, 
which has shocked the whole world and aroused the sympathies of 
the people of every land, must appeal with peculiar force to the 
people of this city, which has not yet forgotten its own experience of 
a disastrous visitation. Chicago remembers the universal help and 
sympathy received in its hour of tribulation, and will not be un- 
mindful now of the cry for succor from the Martinique sufferers, 
whose privations call for prompt and generous assistance. Chi- 
cago, I am confident, will do its duty and do it promptly. 

"I hereby designate the following to act as a relief committee, 
with power to add to their membership and take such steps as will 
result in such a fund being raised as will reflect credit on our city : 



134 Quick Relief foe the Sufferers. 

' ' Marshall Field, A. N. Eddy, John Dupee, Potter Palmer, Jr., 
Charles Deering, E. A. Bradley, H. E. Weaver, Robert Warren, 
R. H. Donnelley, John Farson, J. V. Farwell, C. H. Conover, A. 
C. Bartlett, E. G. Keith, W. M. Hoyt, A. A. Sprague, Arthur J. 
Caton, Arthur Meeker, Jacob Frank, 0. G. Foreman, John G. Gari- 
baldi." 

PATERSON, N. J., READY TO AIL. 

Mayor Hinchliffe of Paterson, N. J., issued a proclamation 
to the people of that city asking for assistance for the sufferers of 
Martinique. It recites "that while the people of Paterson have re- 
cently suffered from a great calamity they are still able to contrib- 
ute their mite to a people who are even greater sufferers, and that 
the affliction of the one can make them sympathize the more with 
the sufferings of the other." 

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, PARIS. 

A meeting called by the American Chamber of Commerce in 
Paris to raise funds for the relief of the West Indian sufferers was 
well attended, and more than 12,000 francs ($2,400) was subscribed 
in a few minutes to aid the destitute people of Martinique. 

The above instances serve only to show the generous spirit 
which was manifested by people of the United States, both at home 
and abroad. 

THE WHOLE WORLD QUICK TO AID. 

While America was first to respond to the piteous cry for 
help from the ill-fated islands, she was by no means the last. 

GREAT POWERS SEND AID. 

King Edward sent a contribution of $5,000 to the relief fund, 
Kaiser Wilhelm sent $2,500, King Victor Emanuel $5,000, King 
Oscar donated $1,000 for the relief of the West Indies, and Canada 
$50,000. The Czar contributed $50,000 through his Minister of 
Finance, M. de Witte, Queen Wilhelmina 2,000 florins ($800), and 
the Emperor of Japan donated 2,000 francs ($400) for the same 
purpose. The Pope contributed 20,000 lire ($4,000). 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 135 

HURRIES WARSHIP TO SCENE. 

The government of the Netherlands ordered the Dutch warship 
Koningin Regentes to proceed from the Island of Curacao, Dutch 
West Indies, to the Island of Martinique at full speed in order to 
assist the sufferers. 

The Legislature of Jamaica voted $5,000 for the relief of the 
sufferers of St. Vincent and Martinique. 

The Council of Berlin recommended unanimously to the mu- 
nicipal authorities the immediate donation of 40,000 marks 
($1,600) for the relief of the sufferers in the West Indies. 

The Municipality of Paris gave 20,000 francs ($4,000) to the 
Martinique relief fund, the Bank of France 25,000 francs ($5,000) 
and the Rothschilds 50,000 francs ($10,000). 

The Courier du Soir, a newspaper which is generally well in- 
formed, said that the French Government intended, when Parlia- 
ment met in June, to ask credit for the amount necessary to 
relieve the Martinique sufferers and to pension the children of Gov- 
ernor Mouttet of Martinique, who lost his life at St. Pierre. 

The municipality placed contribution boxes in the city offices 
to facilitate the collection of small donations to the relief fund. 

A committee at Havre purchased provisions for the relief of the 
sufferers, which were shipped on the French Line steamer Labra- 
dor, leaving Havre on May 22. This committee also asked for 
donations for the sufferers and the Western Railroad agreed to 
convey these donations free of charge. 

Other French seaports adopted plans similar to those put in 
practice by the committee at Havre. 

The French cruisers Bruix and Surcouf were ordered to sail 
on Saturday and Sunday respectively with supplies of food, wine, 
preserves, etc., for the inhabitants of Martinique. 

KRUGER GAVE 800 FRANCS. 

Though handicapped by circumstances the former President 
of the Boer Republic contributed 800 francs ($160) toward the 
Martinique fund, and at the request of the Boer representative in 



136 Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 

Paris the receipts from a Boer benefit meeting held in that city 
were devoted to aiding the Martinique victims. 

Princess Waldemar of Denmark offered to receive donations 
for the relief of the Martinique sufferers. 

Americans in Paris subscribed over $20,000 to the Martinique 
relief fund. The generosity of the Americans, with the prompt 
aid voted by Congress and the sympathy coming from President 
Roosevelt and the people of the United States, was, for a time, the 
one subject of discussion in Paris. 

NO MORE RELIEF NEEDED. 

Thus from the heart of humanity poured this tribute to the fel- 
lowship of mankind. The promptness and energy and singleness 
of thought that marked the giving was an added tribute. 

And so the hands went down into the pocket, sending money, 
flour, beans, and all sorts of food, clothing and medicine, until the 
relief committees on May 24 cabled: "No more relief needed." 

United States Consul Ayme, at Fort de France, cabled the 
State Department May 24th that he visited Admiral Servan on the 
flagship Tage Friday afternoon. The Admiral requested him to 
officially inform the Government of the United States that there 
were now sufficient supplies in the colony to feed every one need- 
ing help for four months, and, therefore, suggested nothing further 
need be sent. This suggestion was accompanied by an expression 
of thanks. The Governor had sent a similar cable to the French 
Government. 

The above brief cablegram from Consul Ayme shows better than 
columns of words what was accomplished in way of relief in sixteen 
short days. This is true philanthropy and cannot fail to bind 
the people of continents in closer friendship and sympathy. The 
citizens of the American continent felt glad of the opportunity to 
give out of their abundance for such a cause. 

WEST INDIAN RELIEF FUND SUSPENDS COLLECTION. 

The general relief committee for Martinique and the West In- 
dian Islands decided at a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. i37 

to suspend, temporarily at least, the collection of subscriptions 
for the benefit of the sufferers. This action was due to the receipt 
by Chairman Gustav H. Schwab of the executive committee of a 
telegram from George B. Cortelyou, secretary to President Roose- 
velt, reading as follows : 

' ' The President thinks it would be advisable to ask committees 
to forward funds now in hand and suspend collections." 

TOTAL AMOUNT COLLECTED $135,736. 

The above amount, it must be remembered, is in excess of what 
was voted by Congress and contributions from Americans abroad. 
Carnegie gave $5,000, and United States citizens in Paris a nice sum. 

RED CROSS WITHDRAWS •APPEAL. 

Washington, May 22.— John M. Wilson, Vice President of the 
American National Red Cross, has issued the following statement: 

' ' Information having been received, through the Department of 
State, from the American consulates at Martinique and St. Vin- 
cent, W. I., that the supplies already furnished for the relief of the 
sufferers from the recent volcanic disturbances in the islands are 
sufficient for present necessities, that adequate measures are being 
taken by the French, English, and local authorities for the supply 
of future needs, and that further contributions by the people of the 
United States are unnecessary, the appeal of the American National 
Red Cross for aid for the victims of the disaster is hereby with- 
drawn. 

"Donations for the purpose of such relief already or hereafter 
received will be held for use in any emergency that may arise re- 
quiring action on the part of the organization." 

SYMPATHY OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

A great calamity, like the disaster of Martinique, in the French 
West Indies, and that of St. Vincent, in the British W v est Indies, 
makes the whole world one kin in thought and work. The sympa- 
thetic chords in every human heart were played upon with telling 



138 Quick Relief foe the Suffereks. 

effect, as tlie real truths of what had occurred in Martinique and 
St. Vincent were given to the world. Regardless of race or creed, 
the desire to help the stricken survivors was the chief thought of 
the people. 

France and England, the mother countries, stunned by the dis- 
aster, and scarcely realizing its awfulness, received condolences 
and proffers of financial aid from the United States, Canada, Ger- 
many, Russia, Italy, Japan and all great nations of the world. 

President Roosevelt, with characteristic energy and thorough- 
ness, immediately set the great agencies of the United States Gov- 
ernment in motion. Every available means to succor the 
unfortunate people was utilized, as the noble heart of the American 
nation responded to the philanthropic suggestion of its President. 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY. 

Following is the text of the cablegram from President Roose- 
velt: 

"Washington, D. C, May 10.— His Excellency M. Emile Lou- 
bet, President of the French Republic, Paris : I pray your Excel- 
lency to accept the profound sympathy of the American people in 
the appalling calamity which has come upon the people of Mar- 
tinique. Theodore Roosevelt.' ' 

President Loubet immediately cabled the following reply: 
' ' I thank your Excellency for the expression of profound sym- 
pathy you have sent me in the name of the American people on the 
occasion of the awful catastrophe in Martinique. The French peo- 
ple will certainly join me in thanks to the American people. 

"Emile Loubet/' 

Commenting upon the attitude taken by the American nation, 
the Temps of Paris, in an editorial says : 

"This manifestation of American sympathy, on the eve of the 
Rochambeau fetes, tends to draw tighter the already close ties unit- 
ing the two republics, and constitutes a guarantee of peace and of 
the fraternity of the two nations. France will never forget the 



Quick Relief for the Sufferers. 139 

spontaneous initiative of President Roosevelt or the significant 
generosity of Congress. ' ' 

The United States was about to dedicate a monument at Wash- 
ington to the Count de Rochambeau, who in the dark hours of the 
American Revolution was sent to our aid with 6,000 veteran sol- 
diers. Could there be given more point to the words our orators 
uttered in the dedication ceremonies than our quick and generous 
response to the Macedonian cry for help from the French West 
Indies? Here, indeed, is action suited to the words and here a 
deed to attest the sincerity of our national gratitude to France for a 
priceless and unrequited service in the long gone but not forgotten 
past 

France and the world saw again, as it had seen before, the 
pouring out of American wealth to relieve the necessities of an alien 
people of another clime. And this time France recognized in the 
act the fraternal sentiment that began with Lafayette and York- 
town and has ever since lived in American hearts. 

ROYALTY PROMPT IN OFFERS OF SYMPATHY. 

Emperor William's message to the French President is unique 
and cannot fail to remove some of the hatred proceeding from the 
war of three decades ago. But that should be only one of the man- 
ifestations of international good will showing that, compete as 
they may, the -nations of earth are dominated by a common hu- 
manity, which in times like this stands upon no ceremony but 
serves wherever there is need. 

The Emperor's message: 

*' Profoundly moved by the news of the terrible catastrophe 
which has just overtaken St. Pierre, and which has cost the lives of 
nearly as many persons as perished at Pompeii, I hasten to offer 
France my most sincere sympathy. May the Almighty comfort 
the hearts of those who weep for their irreparable losses. My am- 
bassador will remit to your Excellency the sum of 10,000 marks in 
my behalf, as a contribution for the relief of the afflicted." 

President Loubet replied: 

"Am greatly touched by the nark of sympathy which, in this 



140 Quick Relief fob the Sufferers. 

terrible misfortune, that has fallen on France, your Majesty has 
deigned to convey to me. I beg you to accept my warm thanks, and 
also the gratitude of the victims whom you propose to succor." 

BRITISH GENEROSITY. 

Sir Edmund J. Monson, the British Ambassador at Paris, May 
13 officially notified M. Delcasse, the French minister of foreign 
affairs, that the British Government had placed all its available 
resources, ships and otherwise, in the vicinity of Martinique, at the 
disposal of the French authorities. 

The Czar and Czarina telegraphed to President ; Loubet that 
they shared with him a lively sympathy and feeling of grief at the 
catastrophe that France had suffered. 

The Prince and Princess Waldemar expressed deep sorrow, 
and the Princess sought aid for the sufferers. 

Former President Kruger sent a characteristic message of 
condolence to President Loubet. 

The Pope summoned the French Ambassador to the Vatican, M. 
Nisard, and expressed to him his keen sorrow on hearing of the 
St. Pierre disaster. The Pontiff requested that he be kept in- 
formed regarding the details of the volcanic outbreak. 

The American Chamber of Commerce at Paris sent a note 
of sympathy to M. Millerand, the Minister of Commerce, on the 
disaster at Martinique. 

LORD ROSEBERY'S COMMENT. 

The London correspondent of the Paris Matin received tributes 
of sympathy with France as a result of the Martinique disaster 
from the Duke of Argyll, Lord Rosebery and other prominent men. 
Lord Rosebery said: 

' ' Such calamities affect all our poor human race, so they should 
unite nations. I earnestly hope it may be so. ' ' 

Thus the warm heart of the whole world goes out to the un- 
fortunate islands. It is an idle thing to philosophize over such an 
event, but it is not an idle thing to sympathize with our fellow men. 

Commercialism, national jealousies and rivalries are all forgot- 
ten at such a time. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DISPOSING OF THE DEAD AND CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS. 

Visitors See Death, Chaos and Silence — Appalling Scenes of Volcanic Disaster 
— Corpses Found in Piles on Shore — Buildings Torn Down — Lava Blocks 
Form Titanic Ruins — Relief Parties Find No Sign of Life — Cyclones of 
Gas, Mud and Flames — Looting the Dead — General Disorder. 

When the news of the catastrophe reached the nearest ports, 
relief parties were organized to visit the fated city and render 
such services as lay in their power. With sad hearts they sailed 
for what such a short time before had been a thriving city. 

As they approached the island it was discovered that St. Pierre 
was no more, and the spot where once the beautiful city stood was 
wrapped in sheets of flame. To land was impossible. Not until 
the next day were they able to enter the outskirts of the city, and 
even then the search was hindered by the fires that were still 
raging. 

All attempts at rescue or investigation were practically useless. 
Along four miles of the western coast of the island there was a bed 
of fire, and at sea the sky was black with smoke and ashes. Pass- 
ing vessels reported that the blanket of fire which fell upon St. 
Pierre appeared to be consuming all the country for miles around. 

Throughout Thursday the heat in the vicinity of St, Pierre was 
so intense and the stream of lava so unremitting that it was 
impossible to approach the town. The French cruiser Suchet, 
after a heroic battle with the heat, suffocation and sulphur 
fumes, succeeded in making a dash toward the shore, nearing the 
land close enough to take off thirty survivors of the disaster, all 
of whom were horribly burned and mutilated. 

St. Pierre at that time was an absolute, smoking waste conceal- 
ing 80,000 corpses, completing their cremation, which was only par- 
tially accomplished by the lava. 

Enormous quantities of wreckage, large and small, and ships 
and houses strewed the surface of the sea. Huge trees and bodies, 

141 



142 Disposing of the Dead. 

with flocks of sea gulls soaring above and hideous sharks fighting 
about them, were floating here and there. From behind the vol- 
canic veil came blasts of hot wind, mingled with others icy cold. 
At Le Precheur, five miles north of St. Pierre, were canoes with men 
and women, frantic to get away and begging for passage on the 
steamer. 

When the first relief parties could venture to penetrate into 
the streets, St. Pierre was a chaos of silent horror. The faint out- 
lines of streets were filled with billows of viscid mud and sulphur- 
ous lava, silently heaving in enormous bubbles, which, as they 
broke, brought to the surface the charred bodies of the human 
beings the hideous brew had swallowed and disgorged. 

To stand still was impossible, to go on with the knowledge that 
every step would bring to view some scene more haunting than all 
that had gone before scarcely less so, and St. Pierre in its appall- 
ing desolation portrayed above all else the repulsiveness of a 
noisome death and fear, the fear which makes the heart palpitate 
and the flowing of the blood through the veins become the keenest 
of torture. 

SHOW TJNIMAGINED SUFFERING. 

It was not only that charred and contorted bodies were at every 
step, it was not that here was seen a family stricken as they fled 
from the home, it was not only the child and the grandparent side 
by side in a hideous death, it was the unimagined suffering of that 
death, the staring eyeball, with the eyelid almost invariably burned 
through, the expanded nostril and the torture expressed in the 
rigid pose of death which showed that 30,000 people within one 
short half minute suffered to a degree that none know and en- 
dured physical and mental torments which none can paint. 

From under a large stone protruded the arm of a white woman, 
while just on the other side of the stone lay a native woman, her 
hands entirely burned away and her arms charred far beyond the 
wrists in a vain attempt to raise the red-hot mass from the body 
of her beloved mistress. What devotion that could endure such 
fearful suffering at so panic-stricken a moment! But a yard or 
two farther on lay twenty or thirty negroes, trusting that if they 



Disposing of the Dead. 143 

could but keep together some must escape, and on white woman, 
faithful servant and abject negro alike the poisonous fumes and 
the fiery rain brought unendurable suffering and death. 

BOILING RIVER IN STREET. 

Through the middle of Place Bertin, where the night before 
lovers had strolled and children played, ran a hissing, boiling 
stream of mingled mud and water, all that remained of the Eiver 
Gayave, but a short time before a rivulet of beauty. This boiling 
water, here and there convulsed and thrown up in a jet of steam, 
laved with venomous touch the bodies of those who so short a 
time before had floated upon its limpid waters. Great trees, with 
roots upward and scorched by fire, showed the course of the famous 
Rue des Arbres, and huge stones still hot and blocks of volcanic 
debris gave a Titanic fearsomeness to the scene. 

St. Pierre was no more. From the far end of the cotton quays, 
where large vessels were wont to lay and busy throngs embark 
and disembark, to the little pier on the point where urchins fished 
and pleasure yachts made fast, nothing was left of the city but de- 
formed and crippled ruins of buildings, piles and yet more piles of 
corpses, volcanic dust and hideous desolation. From half way up 
the side of Mont Pelee to the sea was one level slope of still bub- 
bling lava, but now dull gray, lighted in places by the glow from 
the lava fissures, and the violet hue from the smoke of the still rest- 
less mountain. 

HEAPS OF CORPSES. 

Here and there amid the ruins were heaps of corpses almost all 
face downward. In one corner twenty-two bodies of men, women 
and children were mingled in one awful mass. Trees, with roots 
upward and scorched by fire, were strewn in every direction. Huge 
blocks of still hot stones were scattered about. Most notable was 
the utter silence and awful overpowering stench from the thousands 
of dead. 

Careful inspection showed that the fiery stream which so 
completely destroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of 



144 Disposing of the Dead. 

poisonous gases, which instantly suffocated everyone who inhaled 
them, and of other gases, burning furiously, for nearly all the vic- 
tims had their hands covering their mouths or were in some other 
attitude showing they sought relief from suffocation. All of the 
bodies were carbonized or roasted. 

SIGHT PROM SEA TEARFUL. 

From the sea the sight was scarce less fear-inspiring. The 
island, with its lofty hills, was hidden behind a huge veil of violet 
or leaden-colored haze. 

With great difficulty a landing was effected. The whole north 
end of the island was covered with a silver gray coating of ashes 
resembling dirty snow. Furious blasts of fire, ashes and mud 
swept over the lifeless area and the relief parties were impotent to 
do aught but look and depart, thankful to leave the city behind 
them. None, however, will ever leave behind the memory of those 
sights or the fear with which they were viewed. 

HEAT AND STENCH AWFUL. 

The heat from the smoking, lava-covered ruins was suffocating 
and the stench from the corpse-strewn streets was awful. 

On all sides were found portions of corpses, which were gath- 
ered up by the soldiers and gendarmes and burned on one of the 
public squares. Not a drop of water was procurable ashore. 

The darkness caused by the clouds of volcanic dust shrouded 
the town and continuous subterranean rumbling added to the hor- 
ror of the scene. 

At the landing place some burned and ruined walls indicated 
the spot where the custom-house formerly stood, and traces of the 
larger shops could be seen. In that neighborhood hundreds of 
corpses were found lying in all kinds of attitudes, showing that 
the victims had met death as if by a lightning stroke. Every 
vestige of clothing was burned away from the charred bodies, and 
in many cases the abdomens had been burst open by the intense 
heat, 



Disposing of the Dead. 145 

Many strange and incomprehensible incidents are recounted. 
The charred body of a woman, with a silk handkerchief, unburned 
and in perfect condition, held to her lips was found. The crisped 
bodies of young girls were found, but the shoes they wore were not 
burned. The features of some of the dead showed terrible fright 
and agony, while in many instances the faces of the victims were 
quite calm, as though they were stricken down instantly where they 
stood, without a moment's warning or with hardly time to appre- 
ciate for an instant the deadly peril they were in. 

The most pojDulous quarters of the town were buried under a 
thick layer of cindered lava, which apparently entirely consumed 
the bodies of the victims. But in the lower portions grim piles of 
bodies were stacked everywhere, showing that death had stricken 
them while the crowds were vainly seeking escape from the fiery 
deluge. In one instance an entire family of nine persons were 
found, all tightly locked in each others' arms, and the bodies in a 
horrible state of decomposition. 

It is judged from the positions of the bodies that many were 
overcome almost, before they realized the extent of the peril. Many 
of the bodies were in lifelike positions, as though death had come 
with a breath, as indeed must have been the case. 

Identification was impossible in many cases, but in other cases 
there was no doubt as to the identified. Some were identified by 
the searching parties, which were under military control and con- 
ducted under orders. 

CONSUL VISITS THE CITY. 

At the request of the United States consul at Barbados, Captain 
Davis and the Solent were placed at his disposal by the Barbados 
government. The Solent brought to St. Pierre the colonial secre- 
tary, two civil doctors, two military officers and Dr. W. E. Aughin- 
baugh of Washington, as well as a corporal and four hospital 
orderlies, three trained nurses and a full field hospital outfit. The 
Barbados government also sent 700 barrels of provisions, one ton 
of ice and a full supply of medicine. These were useful, but the 
dead only needed quick burial. 



146 Disposing of the Dead. 

BODIES BURNED WITH PETROLEUM. 

Several steamers, including the government vessel Rubis, came 
from Fort de France to St. Pierre. They had on board a govern- 
ment delegate, a number of gendarmes, a detachment of regular 
infantry and several priests. The vessel also carried a quantity 
of fire wood, petroleum aud quicklime for use in the cremation of 
the bodies of the victims of the terrible volcanic outbreak of May 9. 

Large quantities of disinfectants and stocks of clothing for the 
refugees were also shipped to St. Pierre. The refugees, as a rule, 
assembled at Le Carbet and Case Pilote, not far from St, Pierre, 
and where over a thousand of them died from the fearful stream 
of lava that poured down Mont Pelee. 

CREMATING THE DEAD. 

Almost the first thing done was to make preparations for the 
cremation of the dead. Fatigue parties of soldiers built enormous 
pyres of wood and branches of trees, upon which they heaped the 
dead bodies by scores, and burned them as rapidly as possible. To 
facilitate the combustion and to destroy as far as possible the fright- 
ful odor of burning flesh which came from them, the impromptu 
crematories were heavily soaked with coal tar and petroleum. All 
the dead were naked, their clothing apparently having burned from 
their bodies like so much tinder, while they themselves were roasted 
to death. In the vast majority of instances fire seems to have been 
the sole cause of death. 

BURIAL PARTIES WORK NIGHT AND DAY. 

The terrible scenes witnessed by the burial parties were most 
heart-rending. Steps were taken to prevent disease from results 
of the disaster. Although burial parties worked night and day, it 
was impossible that the dead could be cared for as their friends 
would wish. 

The only persons employed in burying the dead were a few 
small detachments of French soldiers. The negroes who survived 
the disaster could not be persuaded to help in the grewsome work. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

CAUGHT IN THE ERUPTION OF MONT PELEE MAY 8, 1902. 
Eire, ruin and destruction. The above was one of the ships lost in the harbor of 
St. Pierre. The number of lives lost will probably 
never be known. 



Disposing of the Dead, 149 

Their superstitious beliefs rendered them fearful of the results of 
such work. 

ONLY TWO LIVE PERSONS FOUND IN THE RUINS. 

Besides the prisoner found alive in the dungeon, only one living 
person was found. One of the burial parties found a woman be- 
neath a pile of debris in a cellar. The physicians did everything 
in their power to save the life of the woman, but she was horribly 
burned and their efforts were in vain. 

Despite her injuries she was conscious and told what little she 
knew of the disaster. She said that she was going about her duties 
as usual last Thursday morning when suddenly she heard a terrific 
explosion. She was so badly frightened that she fainted, and while 
in this condition she was terribly burned. She remained uncon- 
scious for a long time, but ultimately recovered her senses. 

She then saw two members of the family in which she was em- 
ployed who were still alive, but frightfully burned. They died 
before assistance could reach them. 

The woman stated that she had no further knowledge of the 
catastrophe, and shortly after telling her story she died. 

BANDS OF VANDALS. 

Work in St. Pierre proceeded slowly and under circumstances 
of the most difficulty. Attracted by the hope of loot, bands of pil- 
lagers invaded the ruins. Troops were placed on guard with orders 
to deal with the vandals as befits their shameless crimes. Twenty- 
seven men and three women were brought to Fort de France and 
lodged in jail on charges of robbery. Two men were caught in the 
act of pillaging, and on appearance of a squad of troops sought 
escape in flight, but were shot. 

One cablegram from Fort de France read: 

"St. Pierre is infested with pillagers, who are forcing safes. 
The authorities are taking severe measures. Fifty of the ghouls 
have been imprisoned in this city, where the population wanted to 
lynch them. The thieves have been sentenced to five years' im- 
prisonment each. The government has appointed representatives 



150 Disposing of the Dead. 

of the commercial community to explore the ruins for valuable 
books and papers." 

LOOKING FOR REMAINS OF FRIENDS. 

A searching party was organized at Barbados by Mr. Para- 
vicino, the Italian consul at that place, for the purpose of recover- 
ing the body of his daughter, who was visiting in St. Pierre at the 
time of the disaster. The commander of the American ship Poto- 
mac, endeavoring to help Mr. Paravicino, lent the service of the 
hospital assistants and supplied disinfectants. It was a heart-rend- 
ing scene when the Italian consul recognized the body of his daugh- 
ter lying with hundreds of dead bodies surrounding. Mr. Para- 
vicino brought the body away from St. Pierre in a shell. It was 
carried home and a funeral took place which beggars description. 

FINDING THE U. S. CONSUL. 

The remains of United States Consul Thomas T. Prentis were 
found in his home, but almost too charred to be recognizable. Mrs. 
Prentis is supposed to have been found, but the authorities were in 
doubt as to the bodies of the daughters. 

Seldom before was there a burial such as was given to the. body 
of Thomas T. Prentis. The body, which had been recovered from 
the ruins at the risk of the lives of men sent ashore from the Po- 
tomac, was taken to the cemetery back of Fort de France. There 
were brief services at the grave, led by Captain McLean of the Cin- 
cinnati. About the grave stood officers, marines and sailors from 
the Cincinnati and the Potomac. The gloom was made more in- 
tense by the knowledge held by each man present that his own life 
was in imminent danger. 

A salute was fired by the volcano that had brought destruction 
upon the Consul. While the service was being read there was a 
succession of deep, sullen detonations that might have come from 
great guns belonging to a mighty fleet. As the grave was being 
filled a cloud of ashes came over the city, and a darkness as of 
night followed. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ST. VINCENT AND ITS DEADLY VOLCANO MONT SOUFRIERE. 

General Description of the Island— Climate, Soil and Productiveness— Picturesque 
Kingston— St. "Vincent the Scene of Many Volcanic Disasters— La Soufriere 
in Olden Times— Its Latest Eruption— American and British Relief— A Diary 
of Terror. 

Not alone does Martinique suffer. The British island of St. 
Vincent, near by, is gripped in deadly calamity, its plantations 
destroyed, its towns filled with ashes and its provinces soaked in a 
molten flow of lava from peaks which still continue to pour out their 
deadly stream. While the loss of life is estimated at present in 
thousands, the full tale is not yet told. 

St. Vincent is in Windward Group of the West Indies, lying 
about 100 miles west of Barbados and between Grenadines. It is 
17 miles long and about 10 miles in width, with an area of 132 
square miles. 

Through the island from north to south stretches a ridge of high, 
wooded volcanic hills which extends to the sea on either side and 
culminates in the volcano Morne Garou. 

CLIMATE, SOIL AND PRODUCTIVENESS. 

While the climate of St. Vincent is exceedingly humid, the aver- 
age annual rainfall being nearly seven feet, yet it is not unhealthy. 

The soil of the valley is a rich loam. Sugar, rum, molasses, 
arrow-root, coffee, indigo and maize are produced in abundance. 
Around Georgetown, the capital, the country is undulating and very 
picturesque most of the way, and at one time, before the eruption, 
1812, it was planted entirely in sugar cane. The ruins of windmills 
and factories remain as evidences of the past prosperity of the 
island. To-day the cultivation of arrowroot has taken, to a certain 
extent, the place of that of sugar cane, and one passes field after 
field of broad-leafed marantas. Only one-seventh of the area is 
under cultivation. 

151 



152 St. Vincent and Mont Soufrieee. 

Great Britain sends about one-half of the imports and consumes 
nearly one-sixth of its exports. 

Arrowroot is grown in fields planted like Indian corn when sown 
for fodder. When matured it is dug up and taken to a mill, where 
the roots are broken off, ground, washed and strained, and the mass 
allowed to settle for a few days. The product is then placed on wire 
frames with different sized meshes to dry. It gradually sifts down 
through these and is barreled for shipment. In recent years it has 
brought about $5 a barrel, or eight cents per pound. Formerly it 
brought from forty to sixty cents. 

LABORERS AND WAGES. 

Wages are very low and constantly being reduced, and there is 
a lamentable want of employment, even at the price of less than a 
shilling a day for able-bodied men, who are constantly emigrating, 
leaving the women and children to shift for themselves. 

The island is more thoroughly jilnglish than the others of the 
group. It was discovered by Columbus in 1498 and settled by 
American slaves who were shipwrecked on its coast in 1675. 

Early in the eighteenth century, during the four-handed strug- 
gle for the W^est Indies, which belonged to Spain by grant of the 
Pope, and for which England, Holland and France had little re- 
gard, France took possession of St. Vincent, and in 1763 ceded it to 
Great Britain. It was a part of the Spanish Main— the home of 
pirates— "the scene of many a battle and of the exploits of Drake 
and Hawkins." 

In 1797 the Carib Indians rebelling, with French aid, were 
partly transferred to the Island of Rattan, in the Bay of Hon- 
duras. Those that remained had made that part of the island lying 
at the base of the Soufriere their country. 

St. Vincent has a local government subject to that of the Wind- 
ward Islands. 

PICTURESaUE CAPITAL. 

Kingston, the capital, with about 8,000 inhabitants, is on the 
southwest side, the town stretching along a lovely hay, with mown* 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufriebe. 



i r.o 




w << 



154 St. Vincent and Mont Soufrtere. 

tains gradually rising behind in the form of an amphitheater. Its 
red-roofed houses and a few fine stone structures show picturesquely 
through the palm groves. Behind these are the Governor's house 
and botanical buildings overlooking the town. Three streets, broad 
and lined with good houses, front the water. On these are stone 
buildings occupied as a police station and government stores. 
There are many other intersecting highways, some of which lead 
back to the foothills, from which good roads ascend the mountains. 
Kingston is fifteen miles from Soufriere. St. Vincent is ruled by 
a Governor and a nominated legislative council of eight members. 
Previous to the year 1877 it had a representative government. 

GEEAT DISASTEE OF 1812. 

Among all the islands of the Caribbees St. Vincent is unique in 
natural wonders and beauties. It is composed largely of a single 
peak, rising from the ocean 's bed, with no outlying islets. It is the 
smallest of volcanic West India islands, and is chiefly notable as 
being the scene of one of the most terrific volcanic explosions on 
record. It was the great ' ' soufriere ' ' on the side of the Morne 
Garou that broke loose and wrought havoc on April 27, 1812. 

Morne Garou, situated in the northern part of the island, is 
about 5,000 feet high, and in its flange is an immense ' ' soufriere, ' ' 
or sulphur pit, similar to that in Mont Pelee. 

Other great volcanic upheavals had occurred in the eighteenth 
century at St. Vincent, and there are vague, inconsistent traditions 
of one in 1718, which tore Morne Garou to pieces, and there was 
another severe one in 1785. 

GEEATEST EVENT IN HISTOEY OF THE ISLAND. 

But of the great one of April 27, 1812, the accounts are entirely 
authentic. It is the greatest event in the history of the island. For 
two years prior to the outbreak of 1812 the earth had been dis- 
turbed by great convulsions all about the southern shores of the 
Caribbean Sea, the "American Mediterranean," as it sometimes 
is called. On March 26, 1812, the Venezuelan coast was savagely 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufeieee. 155 

shaken, and the City of Caracas knocked into a heap of ruins, in 
which from 10,000 to 12,000 persons were killed. 

From Caracas the terrific subterranean forces moved seaward, 
following the line of the least resistance and seeking an outlet which 
they at last found in the great ' ' Souf riere ' ' of Morne Garou on the 
little Island of St. Vincent. 

SERIES OF APPALLING ROARS. 

A roar, or, rather, a series of appalling explosions . and roars, 
continued through several hours, and were heard in Venezuela and 
Barbados. The imprisoned gases broke through the rocky side of 
the mountain with inconceivable fury and hurled into the heavens a 
cloud of shattered rocks, dust, and black volumes of smoke that for 
three days thereafter covered the island with the darkness of night. 

At Barbados the English soldiers took the uproar for the can- 
nonading of a distant naval battle and prepared for an attack. 

PALL EXTENDED 100 MILES. 

Barbados is 100 miles east of St. Vincent, and the trade winds 
blow steadily toward the southwest. Yet apparently right against 
these winds the clouds of smoke and dust from the St. Vincent ex- 
plosion spread until Barbados was covered with a black pall that 
turned the brilliant sunlight of the tropics into darkness. An im- 
palpable black dust fell like a sooty snow-storm until the entire 
island was covered with it to the depth of several inches. 

The mystery of the apparent movement against the strong trade 
winds was explained by the fact that the inky clouds from the ex- 
plosion must have been hurled over 16,000 feet into the air and were 
carried out earthward over the sea by retiring currents above the 
trade winds. 

The havoc wrought upon St. Vincent at that time was beyond 
words to tell, but from that time until the last outbreak the Morne 
Garou has been quiescent, save certain rumblings from time to time, 
to which the people long since ceased to give serious attention. 



156 St. Vincent and Mont Soueriere. 

LA SOUFRIERE IN OLDEN TIMES. 

Previous to the eruption of 1812 the appearance of the Soufriere 
was most interesting. The crater was half a mile in diameter and 
500 feet in depth. In its center was a conical hill, fringed with 
shrubs and vines. At its base were two small lakes, one sulphurous 
the other pure and tasteless. From the fissures of the cone a thin 
white smoke exuded occasionally, tinged with a light-blue flame. 

Evergreens, flowers and aromatic shrubs clothed the steep sides 
of the crater, which sent, as the first indication of the eruption on 
April 27, a tremendous noise in the air. A severe concussion of 
the earth followed, and then a column of thick black smoke burst 
from the crater. Volumes of sand darkened the air, and wood 
ridges and cane fields were covered with light-gray ashes, which 
speedily destroyed all vegetation. The sun for three days seemed 
to be in a total eclipse, the sea was discolored and the ground bore 
a wintry appearance from the crust of fallen ashes. Carib natives 
who lived at Morne Rond fled from their houses to Kingston. As 
the third day drew to a close flames sprang pyramidally from the 
crater, accompanied by loud thunder and electric flashes, which rent 
the column of smoke hanging over the volcano. 

SHOWER OF CINDERS AND STONES. 

Eruptive matter pouring from the northwest side plunged over 
the cliff, carrying down rocks and woods in its course. The island 
was shaken by an earthquake and beaten by cinders and stones, 
which set houses on fire and killed negroes and natives. 

It was considered a remarkable circumstance that, although the 
air was perfectly calm during the eruption, Barbados, which is 
ninety-five miles to the windward, was covered inches deep with 
ashes. 

The inhabitants there and on the other neighboring islands were 
terrified by the darkness, which continued four hours and a half. 
Troops were called under arms, the supposition from the continued 
noise being that hostile fleets were in an engagement. 



St. Vincent and Mont Soitfkiere. 157 

NEW CRATER FORMED. 

Northwest of the original crater of the Soufriere a new one 
was formed which caused the people no especial fear. The old 
crater was transformed into a beautiful blue lake, walled in by 
ragged cliffs to a height of 800 feet. It was considered a wonder 
worth seeing. On the windward side of St. Vincent lived the 
last remnants of the black Caribs, who a hundred years ago fought 
fiercely against the British invaders of their tropical domain. The 
black Caribs were subdued in the year 1785, after they had commit- 
ted many cruelties. Their chief, Black Bulia, was gibbeted alive 
in chains. 

RECENT ERUPTION IN ST. VINCENT. 

History will have to record that in 1902 St. Vincent passed 
through a veritable baptism of fire, and with such fearful result as 
to rival the disaster of Mont Pelee and its environs with their thirty 
thousand victims. 

Morne Soufriere had been in activity for nearly a fortnight, 
burying the inhabitants and vegetation in ashes. The havoc caused 
was so great that it is said that if a line were drawn dividing the 
island into halves there would in all probability be not one living 
being found north of it. The entire district was a smoking, incin- 
erated ruin. Ashes were everywhere, in no place being less than 
two feet deep. Every Indian had disappeared. Not a sprig of 
green was to be seen on the island. Live stock had died. Houses 
had vanished. Rivers were dry and in their beds ran lava. 

Many expected that the entire island would be destroyed, and 
the night was given up to prayers. The darkness was intense, save 
when everything was made light as broad day by the lightning 
which forked from the volcano. 

This fact brings to mind a curious old Indian prophecy that the 
Caribs, who were fire worshipers, should one day be sacrificed to 
their god. 



158 St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 

WATCHED EY SPECTATORS. 

On the night of May 7 the lurid flames from Morne Soufriere 
were watched by the people of St. Lucia, and on the following night 
the Wear, a steamship of the Royal Mail service, was held for three 
hours by a block of floating ashes, while trying to make her way to 
Kingston. 

When it finally reached Kingston at daybreak the next morn- 
ing the town was in a pitiable condition. Ashes two inches deep 
covered the streets, and a rain of stones was falling from the crater 
fifteen miles away, while the panic-stricken people were praying for 
deliverance. 

The distress in Chateau Belaire was great. Down the sides of 
the volcano streams of boiling lava were flowing, crossing and re- 
crossing each other, forming a network from which no living thing 
caught within its grasp could escape. 

Down through an old river channel flowed a stream of molten 
lava and emptied into the sea, with a hissing roar that could be 
heard for miles. This stream reached the sea. within one hundred 
yards of Georgetown, and was carried by its own force a quarter 
of a mile beyond the water 's edge. 

NEW CRATERS OPENED. 

Many new craters opened and closed near the summit of Morne 
Soufriere. For ninety years the volcano has been dormant, and 
a beautiful blue lake filled its crater, but for a number of days pre- 
ceding the present eruption the mountain had trembled violently, 
and deep mutterings were heard within. 

On Thursday morning, May 8th, the same day as the Pelee out- 
burst, a huge column of black smoke rose to the distance of bight 
miles above the crater. Ashes and rock and boiling lava deluged 
the island and ocean for miles around. The column of smoke de- 
scended with the blackness of night to blot out the noonday sun. 
It is believed that many of the victims were suffocated by the sul- 
phurous gas before the white-hot lava reached them. The earth 
quaked continually, the stones and ashes'and lava fell incessantly; 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 159 

the darkness was dense and impenetrable save when the forked 
lightnings flashed from out the volcano. 

THE CLIMAX WAS REACHED. 

At last came the climax. May 10th Soufriere suddenly opened, 
sending six separate streams of lava pouring and boiling down its 
sides. Death was everywhere and in its most terrible form. Light- 
ning came from the sky, killing many who had escaped the molten 
streams overpouring into the valleys. 

The lava destroyed several districts with their live stock. Peo- 
ple fled to Georgetown, streams were dried up, and in many places 
a food and water famine threatened. The government fed num- 
bers of sufferers from the outbreak. 

At present writing several districts have not yet been heard 
from, as the scene of the eruption is unapproachable. 

Although the estates of Wallibou and Richmond, on the leeward 
side of the island, were entirely destroyed, and a large part of the 
district was covered by a thick bed of lava, there appears to have 
been little loss of life there, most of the inhabitants having es- 
caped before the eruption. Unfortunately, those inhabiting the 
Carib country, to windward, probably believing themselves safe, 
did not in most cases make any attempt to get away until the last 
moment, with the result that nearly every one in that district per- 
ished. 

STORY OF THE RUIN. 

In writing home a correspondent who reached Georgetown after 
the eruption of May 10th says : ' ' The first place we stopped at was 
the overseer's house in Langley Park. Thirty-seven bodies were 
found. They had already been buried, but many dead animals, the 
working stock, lay scattered about, and the stench was unbearable. 

"At every step we encountered fresh scenes and horrors. Here 
and there a band of men who had been at work from the early morn- 
ing were dragging corpses to the trench. There was only one way 
in which their grewsome work could be performed. One of the 
men, having first tied a handkerchief saturated with carbolic acid 



160 St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 

over Ms face, would rush into the ruins and slip a noose around an 
ankle of one of the corpses; then the other men would drag the 
body by a long rope to the trench, in which it was rapidly covered 
over. 

"In the schoolroom twenty-four bodies had been found, and had 
been buried in a trench close by. A few oxen, more or less injured, 
were wandering about in search of water. Death was everywhere— 
death in its worst form. As we went along mounds were pointed 
out to us which contained fifteen, thirty, or more bodies. 

"In one shop forty persons had taken refuge and had all per- 
ished. 

' ' The following day old La Soufriere seemed less angry, and the 
fear-burdened hearts began to hope the end of its fury had come. 
Still the lava did not cease. All the plantations were seen to be 
buried beneath volcanic matter. 

"Everywhere were dead bodies, some partially buried, others 
covered with lava. 

"Georgetown suffered terribly. The volcanic dust breathed in 
created an intense thirst, and the wretched suffering could not be 
allayed as the water was dried up or polluted by the gas and lava. ' ' 

NEW ERUPTION ON MAY 13TE. 

On May 13 a new eruption occurred, and its explosions could be 
heard in Barbados, a distance of one hundred miles. 

Accounts given by refugees indicate that loss of life was very 
great. No communication has yet been had with the devastated 
district. No one has been able to penetrate it on account of the 
intense heat and the floods of lava which still prevail. 

DESCRIBED AS THE "BEAUTIFUL HORROR." 

An eye-witness describing the "beautiful horror" in the sky 
above St. Vincent on May 12 says : 

"At midday the craters ejected enormous columns of steamy 
vapor, rising majestically eight miles and expanding into wonder- 
ful shapes, resembling enormous cauliflowers, gigantic wheels and 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufeiebe. 161 

beautiful flower forms, all streaked up and down and crosswise with 
vivid flashes of lightning, awing the beholder and impressing the 
mind with fear. The mountain labored to rid itself of a mass of 
molten lava, which later flowed over in six streams down the side 
of the volcano ; and the greater noises following united in one con- 
tinuous roar all evening, through the night, to Thursday morning, 
accompanied with black rain, falling dust and favilla scoria, and 
attended with midnight darkness all Wednesday, creating feelings 
of fear and anxious suspense. 

"Soufriere still shows signs of activity. The island is con- 
stantly trembling. Earthquakes follow one another in quick suc- 
cession." 

THE GOVERNOR'S TELEGRAM. 

Sir Robert Llewelyn, Govei'nor of the Windward Islands, tele- 
graphs to the colonial office from the Island of St. Vincent, under 
date of Tuesday, May 13, as follows : 

"I arrived here yesterday and found the state of affairs much 
worse than had been reported. The administrators' reports show 
that the country on the east coast, between Robin Rock and George- 
town, apparently was struck and devastated in a manner similar to 
that in which St. Pierre was destroyed, and I fear that practically 
all living things in that radius were killed. 

"Probably 1,600 persons lost their lives. The exact number 
never will be known. Managers and owners of the estates, with 
their families, and several of the better class of people, have been 
killed. A thousand bodies have been found and buried. One hun- 
dred and sixty persons are in the hospital at Georgetown. Prob- 
ably only six of this number will recover. 

DETAILS ARE HARROWING. 

"The details of the disaster are too harrowing for description. 
I got at St. Lucia a coasting steamer, which is running up and down 
the leeward coast with water and provisions. Twenty- two hundred 
persons have received relief. J have asked for medical officers 
from Trinidad and Grenada. All tlie neighboring British colonies 



162 St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 

are assisting generously. Every effort is being made to grapple 
with the awful calamity. 

"All the best sugar estates in the Carib country are devastated 
and the cattle are dead. 

' ' The eruption continues, but is apparently moderating. Anx- 
iety is still felt. All the officers and residents are co-operating with 
me. Uhe ladies are making clothing." 

STILL IN DESTRUCTIVE ERUPTION. 

Under date of May 13, another witness says: "The Soufriere 
volcano is still in destructive eruption. A terrific cannonade can 
be heard a hundred miles away. The reports are followed by 
columns of smoke rising miles in the air. Immense balls of colored 
fire also issue from the crater. Lightning is playing fiercely in the 
upper sky, and the whole northern part of the island is a mass of 
traveling flame. It is impossible to reach the burning district by 
land or sea, and there are no means of estimating the destruction to 
life and property. 

"Kingston, the capital, still is safe, though showers of ashes and 
pebbles are continually falling. The volcano itself is invisible. 

"The bodies of 1,300 victims of the eruption of La Soufriere 
have already been interred, and there are from 500 to 1,000 more 
yet unburied. 

' ' Five thousand utterly destitute people are now in this city de- 
pendent upon the government for their food from day to day. The 
hospital here is filled with dying people. There are fifty injured 
lying on the floor without beds. Large army tents have been erected 
as hospital annexes, but even they are overcrowded." 

BURYING THE DEAD. 

A native of St. Vincent writes, under date of May 14, to friends 
in Chicago, saying: "The burial parties are having the greatest 
difficulty. In some instances rough coffins are being made to receive 
the remains of the victims. The hospital is filled with dying people. 
Fifty injured persons are lying on the floor of that building, as 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 163 

there are no beds for their accommodation, though cots are being 
rapidly constructed of boards. This and similar work has been in 
progress since immediately after the disaster. Two days elapsed 
before there were any burials. 

RESORT TO BURNING THE DEAD. 

' ' In some cases bodies are dragged by ropes to trenches and cov- 
ered with quicklime. In other places cremation is resorted to. 
Often the bodies are buried with dust so deeply that they are not 
found until walked on b}^ the rescue parties. 

"To date nearly 2,000 deaths on this island have been reported. 
Bodies have been discovered in houses in lifelike attitudes, present- 
ing grewsome spectacles. There are decomposed bodies in many 
houses, and in order to guard against disease it probably will be 
necessary for the authorities to burn these dwellings. Owing to 
the many difficulties in the way of those who have the matter in hand 
hundreds of bodies have not yet been interred. 

"As wide areas of ground which formerly produced foodstuff 
have been devastated, there is to-day an abnormal demand for 
breadsturfs and a consequent scarcity of food supplies. The prices 
on food are advancing. The destruction of the live stock of the 
island has also caused a rise in the price of meat. 

' ' The entire northern part of the island is covered with ashes to 
an average depth of eighteen inches, varying from a thin layer at 
Kingstown to two feet or more at Georgetown. The crops are 
ruined; nothing green can be seen; the streets of Georgetown are 
cumbered with heaps of ashes like snow drifts, and ashes lie so 
heavily on the roofs that in several cases they have caused them to 
fall in. 

' ' The injured persons were horribly burned by the hot grit which 
was driven along with tremendous velocity. Twenty-six persons 
who sought refuge in a room ten feet by twelve were all killed. One 
person was brained by a huge stone nine miles from the crater." 

MEDICAL SUPPLIES AND HOSPITALS. 

Another resident of Georgetown writes as follows: "As the 
Colonial Hospital here was found inadequate to accommodate the 



1#4 St. "Vincent and Mont SotTflkmrai. 

sufferers, large army tents have been erected for the rise of the 
patients, who are being constantly brought here from other towns 
on the island. But even these annex hospitals are overcrowded. 
The local doctors have been re-enforced by a doctor who arrived 
here from the Island of Grenada, one of the British Windward 
Islands. He brought with him a number of packages of medical 
supplies, which were extremely useful. 

"The arrival here of the first detachment of the ambulance 
corps which brought sufferers caused a sensation. This party 
consisted of a hundred persons, whose charred bodies exhaled 
foetid odors, and whose loathsome faces made even the hospital 
attendants shudder. All these burned persons were suffering fear- 
fully from thirst, and uttered, when strong enough to do so, agoniz- 
ing cries for water. It is doubtful whether one of the whole party 
will recover. 

"The death rate among the people in the hospitals is very high, 
in spite of the best medical efforts made in their behalf. 

DEATH FROM SULPHURIC VAPORS. 

"The sulphuric vapors which still exhale all over the island are 
increasing the sickness and mortality among the surviving inhab- 
itants, and are causing suffering among the new arrivals. The hos- 
pital staffs are giving way to overwork and are bearing up with 
difficulty, but the news of the dispatch of an ambulance corps from 
the garrison of Barbados, and the statements that further medical 
assistance will arrive soon, are having a beneficial effect upon all 
concerned. 

BESTOWAL OF SYMPATHY. 

"All the neighboring British colonies are evincing sympathy 
with the sufferers here, and subscription lists have been started and 
food and clothing are being forwarded from all the British islands. 
While the entire community is thankful for this help and sympathy 
from British sources, on all sides is heard grateful appreciation of 
the prompt aid furnished by the United States in sending the Po- 
tomac here with provisions and other things for the destitute people 
of St. Vincent." 




% 





Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

ERUPTION OF MONT PELEE AS DESCRIBED BY AN EYE-WITNESS. 
The mountain seemed to split in two and close again. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 
MARKET PLACE AT ST. PIERRE, MORNING OF THE ERUPTION. 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 167 

VOLCANIC LAKE DISAPPEARED. 

The report that the volcanic lake which occupied the top of 
the mountain has disappeared seems to be confirmed. A sea of lava, 
emitting sulphurous fumes, now apparently occupies its place, and 
several new craters have been formed. The last time the volcano 
showed activity the craters, old and new, and numerous fissures 
in the mountain sides, discharged hot vapor, deep subterranean 
murmurings were heard, the ground trembled at times; from the 
center of the volcano huge volumes of steam rose like gigantic pine 
trees toward the sky, and a dense smoke, mingling with the steam, 
issued from a new and active crater, forming an immense pall over 
the northern hills, lowering into the valleys and then rising and 
spreading until it enveloped the whole island in a peculiar gray 
mist. 

A PAUSE IN VOLCANIC ACTIVITY. 

A resident of St. Vincent wrote, on May 15th, saying : ' ' Since 
midnight Tuesday the subterranean detonations here have ceased, 
and the Soufriere, Wednesday, relapsed, apparently, into perfect 
repose, no smoke rising from the crater, and the fissures emitting 
no vapor. The stunted vegetation that formerly adorned the slopes 
of the mountain has disappeared, having given place to gray-colored 
lava, which greets the eye on every side. The atmosphere is dry, 
but somewhat agitated. Rain would be welcome, as there is a great 
deal of dust in the air, which is very disagreeable and irritating to 
throats and eyes, and is causing the merchants to put all their dry 
goods under cover. The inhabitants (meaning the white popula- 
tion, as a rule) naturally are anxious to know whether the repose 
of the volcano is permanent, or whether it is the lull which usually 
precedes greater paroxysmal activity. 

FLOCKING TO THE TOWNS. 

"Some people, anticipating that there is danger of further vol- 
canic eruptions, are leaving the outlying towns for this city. The 
negroes who have remained on the estates are half starved, and 



168 St. Vincent and Mont Soufkiere. 

the Carib survivors are leaving their caves and pillaging aban- 
doned dwelling-houses and shops." 

THE SEA ENCROACHING ON THE LAND. 

It is estimated that the sea has encroached from ten feet to two 
miles along the coast near Georgetown, and that a section on the 
north of the island has dropped into the sea. This is apparently 
verified by the report of the French cable ship Pouyer Quertier, 
that soundings now show seven fathoms where before the outbreak 
there were thirty-six fathoms of water. 

PEASANT PROPRIETARY. 

Much importance is attached locally to the loss which the colony 
has sustained in the injury to the peasant proprietary, a scheme 
for the development of which was lately inaugurated by the Im- 
perial Government, with the view of assisting the inhabitants, and 
in order to encourage the people to attain prosperity. 

THE POTOMAC'S WORK. 

Lieutenant Benjamin B. McCormick, commanding the United 
States steam tug Potomac, called on Governor Llewellyn and offered 
him the sympathy of the United States and any assistance which it 
is in his power to render. The Potomac also landed what she could 
spare of her foodstuffs. The Governor expressed his thanks. The 
Potomac carried official dispatches to the Island of St. Lucia. 

AMERICAN SYMPATHY POR ST. VINCENT. 

By direction of the President, Secretary Hay, on May 12, sent 
the following cablegram to Ambassador Choate at London: 

* ' Express to British Government the sympathy of the President 
and the people of this country in the affliction which has befallen 
St. Vincent and our desire to share in the work of aid and rescue. ' ' 

Two messages expressing sympathy regarding the loss of life 
at St. Vincent and offering aid were sent from the United 



St. Vincent and Mont Soueriere. 169 

States Government. One was private and the other official. The 
former was verbally presented by United States Ambassador 
Choate, whom Lord Lansdowne, the Foreign Secretary, warmly 
thanked. 

The official message reached Mr. Chamberlain, the Colonial Sec- 
retary. He immediately wrote to the foreign office desiring Lord 
Lansdowne to very gratefully acknowledge and accept President 
Roosevelt 's offer of assistance and to inform Mr. Roosevelt that Mr. 
Chamberlain had cabled to the Governor at St. Vincent asking for 
information as to the best method of utilizing the United States' 
offer. Until the Governor's answer is received nothing definite 
can be done. 

The Associated Press was authorized to announce officially on 
behalf of both the foreign office and the colonial office that President 
Roosevelt's offer had created the deepest gratitude. 

They declared that no occurrence of recent years has so brought 
home to them the deep and material friendship existing between 
the two governments. 

Lord Monkbretton, Mr. Chamberlain's private secretary, said: 
"We are indeed grateful to America. Our only difficulty is to in- 
sure an equitable distribution of the relief sent from all sources. 
Until we hear from the Governor at St. Vincent we believe it would 
be better to defer organizing a system of distribution, though any- 
thing sent to him will doubtless be well applied. Experience from 
previous disasters teaches us that unprincipled persons take ad- 
vantage of charity, and that a man who has only had his pig-sty 
burned down will demand a new house." 

BRITISH BELIEF FUNDS. 

Much satisfaction is expressed at the opening of the Mansion 
House West Indian relief fund, while the tardiness of the action 
taken by the authorities is adversely commented on. Thus the 
Westminster Gazette says: 

"Once again, in the cause of charity, our kinsmen across the 
Atlantic have gained a substantial start, and have set the Old Coun- 
try an example cf swift and magnificent generosity, from, which 
we might well benefit." 



170 St. Vincent and Mont Soufkiere. 

St. Paul's Cathedral and other churches arranged for special 
collections in aid of the fund. 

BRITISH GOVERNMENT STEPS. 

In a statement in the House of Commons regarding the measures 
proposed by the government for the relief of the sufferers from the 
volcanic outbreaks in the West Indies, the government leader in 
the House, the Eight Hon. A. J. Balfour, after a reference to the 
steps taken, said : 

' ' "We have not taken account of the most sympathetic manner in 
which the United States Government have, to use their own lan- 
guage, expressed their desire 'to share in the work of aid and 
rescue. ' As to the manner in which this generous offer can best be 
accepted the Government of the Windward Islands has already been 
consulted." 

Mr. Balfour referred to the opening of the relief fund at the 
Mansion House by the Lord Mayor, Sir Joseph Dimsdale, in behalf 
of the sufferers in St. Vincent, and said that Canada, Jamaica and 
the other West Indian Islands, and the Island of Mauritius prom- 
ised to help with money and goods. 

"I have no doubt," he added, ''that the other colonies will be 
equally generous. In addition the Governor of the Windward 
Islands has been authorized to spend whatever sums are necessary, 
and the Imperial Government is prepared to supplement the con- 
tributions from other sources to whatever extent may be necessary. 

"As regards the Island of Martinique, Lord Lansdowne (the 
Foreign Minister) on May 12 instructed his Majesty's Ambassador 
at Paris (Sir Edward Monson) to say that it would give the Gov- 
ernment great pleasure to offer assistance in any manner most con- 
venient to the sufferers from the calamity, and to say that if this 
country could help by the loan of doctors or the gift of medical 
comforts and provisions we were prepared to act forthwith. The 
French Government replied, accepting with gratitude the offer of 
his Majesty's Government. From the nature of the case there 
must be a distinction between our own colonies and those of another 
power in the expenditure of money. But the Government, as stated t 



St. Vincent and Mont Sotjfriere. 1?1 

are prepared to give comforts and provisions to sufferers at Mar- 
tinique. ' ' 

DIARY OF TERROR. 

Miss Martha Farnell, a teacher on the Island of St. Vincent, 
is thought to have perished in the terrible outbreak of Soufriere. 
She lived in a little house alone with her servant in a suburb of 
Kingston, and during the days of awful suspense preceding the 
convulsions that started the flow of lava from Soufriere she had 
written a letter to her mother, adding day by day the awful por- 
tents of the eruption of Soufriere, to which she afterward fell a 
victim. The letter was found on her table by those searching for 
her body. The house had been completely buried in volcanic 
dust. Her body was not found, and it is surmised that, agonized 
out of reason, the young woman rushed, with her companion, into 
the volcanic dust. The letter is addressed to her mother, Mrs. 
Mary Farnell, and while it is written in broken and distracted sen- 
tences, perhaps gives a more vivid picture of the mental suffering 
the wretched people of St. Vincent and other West Indies are now 
undergoing than any other on record : 

' ' Kingston, St. Vincent, Sunday, May 4. 
"My Mother: 

"The heat is so great that last night I could not sleep though my 
windows were both open wide, and to-day it overpowered me and I 
fainted. 

"The natives— the Caribs— came flocking into our village yes- 
terday. They are driven out of their country, which is near Mont 
Soufriere, by the heat, which is so great that they are suffocating. 
There are about fifty of them here now, quartered at the police sta- 
tion. The Governor and a committee went out last night to ascer- 
tain the real state of affairs. They tell us that at midnight old 
Morne Garou was a grand sight, flames shooting from its top. 
Morne Garou is a mountain near La Soufriere. The flames continue 
this morning. 

1 ' A woman who lives in Leeward has come here. She says that 
down there it is growing dark and fire and smoke continually spurt 



172 St. Vincent and Mont Souffjere. 

from the mountain. Even here a gloom hangs over the sky, and 
our hearts are growing fearful. 

"Thursday, May 8. 

"Alive yet! But little did I expect yesterday to be writing to 
you now. The volcano is in eruption. God help us. He alone 
knows what the end will be. 

"It began about 11 a. m. The noise was like terrific thunder. 
The children could not study— they were frightened out of their 
reason. Some cried, others fainted. Indeed, I think I should have 
done so myself had I not felt I must control my feelings for their 
sakes. We tried to pacify them by telling them it was only thun- 
der, but they knew better. There were twenty of them. I told 
them they might go home at 1 o'clock, for the noises were so loud 
that it was like a continuous cannonading. I could not bear to 
look at the mountain, for we all feel that it may hurl us into the 
other world at any moment, 

"We went hurriedly home and began to take the pictures from 
the wall, and the bric-a-brac from the shelves, lest the fearful 
jarring of the earth should shake them down with a crash. While 
we were doing this the stones began to rain down on the house ; we 
hastened to close the windows. Great stones struck the house with 
such force I marvel that its roof and sides were not crushed in. At 
4 o'clock we were in complete darkness. There were no stones 
falling then, but scoria fell like rain, sifting in through the walls 
until everything is covered. Our hair, our eyes, our noses are full 
of it. Our food, too— we are literally eating scoria. 

"Oh, this dreadful night! Will it never end? It is but 1:45 
now, and it seems like ages since the beginning! I am so weak 
from fearing whatever it is we are waiting I can no longer hold 
the pen, so will try to sleep, if I can. 

"Friday, 9th. 

' ' Oh, mother, mother, the horror of it ! People are being brought 
here whose homes have been destroyed. They are wailing for those 
who are dead. How can we live through it? 

"Two hours ago there was another shock and eruption. Oh, 
the panic! The people flying in every direction trying to be with 
their own ; wringing their hands and praying for deliverance from 



St. Vincent and Mont Soufriere. 173 

rlie awful death impending over us. There seems to he no hope 
for us. We cannot get away. If a steamer comes and I am spared 
I shall write again soon. ' 

Unfortunately this is the end. This teacher, like many others, 
never wrote again. Eternity will yield the answer as to her fate. 

SUMMARY OF INTERESTING FACTS— ST. VINCENT. 

The Island of St. Vincent is 1,795 miles from New York. 

It is only about half the size of Martinique. 

It is 18 miles long and 11 wide. 

Out of a population of 41,000 at last census there were only 
2,500 Europeans. 

Kingstown, the capital, has a population of 5,000. 

It is situated in the southwestern part of the island and 15 
miles from La Soufriere. 

La Soufriere, the volcano in eruption, is in the north of the 
island. 

The volcano was last in eruption in 1812. 

Then the entire island was covered with a rain of stones, ashes 
and lava. 

Ashes from the volcano in 1812 fell on islands 100 miles away. 

The island was discovered by Columbus in 1498. 

It has been a British possession since 1783. 

Sir Eobert Llewellyn is the Governor of the island. 

Over half the population is African. 

A range of densely wooded hills from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height 
runs from the north to the south of the island. 

The island is nearly a day's sail from Martinique. 

It is within half a day of Barbados and five hours of St. Lucia. 

St. Vincent is 68 miles northeast of Grenada. 

There are about 3,000 coolies on the island. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FUTURE OUTLOOK OF MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT. 

France Offers to Transport All Wishing to Leave Martinique— Disorganization of 
Trades— St. Pierre Must Not Be Rebuilt— Fort de France Safe- Experiences 
of Mr. George Kennan and Mr. G. J. Kavanaugh— Professor Heilprin's Dis- 
coveries—Aid to Science— New United States Consul to Martinique. 

With the destruction of life and property resulting from the vol- 
canoes Mont Pelee on the Island of Martinique and La Soufriere 
on the Island of St. Vincent, it naturally becomes a question in the 
mind of man, what is the future outlook of these islands ? Certain 
it is that even though the governments continue stations there, the 
people are for a time sure to scatter and it will, in all probability, be 
a long time before they return even though the volcanoes settle down 
to quiet, as is not likely to be the case for some little time. 

Martinique, previous to the recent eruption, had a population of 
nearly 190,000 people, more than 500 people to the square mile. The 
whites numbered about 10,000, the French-born about 1,300, exclu- 
sive of the French garrison, which numbered 1,300. Natives, Afri- 
cans, Chinese and a mixed class, made up the balance. Statistics 
show it to have been among the most densely populated sections in 
the world. 

FRANCE WILL TRANSPORT ALL WISHING TO LEAVE MARTINIQUE. 

From Mr. St. Elmo, paymaster on the Potomac, the second ship 
to reach Martinique with supplies after the disaster, it is learned 
that M. Decrais, Minister of the Colonies, has authorized M. 
L 'Huerre, Governor of Martinique, to pay out of the relief funds the 
expenses of transportation to France or to the French colonies of all 
the inhabitants of Martinique who are desirous of leaving the island, 
provided they are able to show that they have relatives or resources 
at the place of their destination. 

Of course it is to be understood that France did not urge them 
to make the change but simply offered a home and protection under 
the French flag. 

174 



The Future Outlook of Martinique. 175 

Many of the inhabitants gladly accepted the offer made by 
France and have sailed, or are planning to sail to the mother coun- 
try, as fast as transportation can be secured, others have gone or are 
going to Guadaloupe, and still others to French Guiana, As early as 
May 10th they began this exodus. Streams of frightened refugees 
poured into Fort, de France from all the surrounding country. 
These people are not destitute, but they are terrified. They want 
only one thing, and that is to be taken far away from this island, 
with which, they say, the gods are angry, and which they will destroy 
by fire before it sinks under the sea. 

The officers of the war vessels in the harbor are waylaid by scores 
of people crazed with fear begging to be carried away. 

"We want not food, but only to leave," was the single and unani- 
mous cry of all, rich and poor alike. 

Although Mont Pelee is gradually losing its terrifying aspect, 
yet in one day alone, 1,500 persons left Fort de France for the towns 
of Trinidad and Cayenne, in French Guiana, some 1,200 went to 
Guadaloupe, and many others went to St. Lucia, while some 3,000 
went to the extreme south of the island. 

DISORGANIZATION OF TRADES. 

This desertion of Fort de France resulted in the disorganization 
of many trades. A number of bakers were compelled to close their 
stores owing to the fact that their employes were among those who 
fled from the city. In addition to the bakers' stores, most of the 
other shops were closed. This is partly due to the enormous quan- 
tity of supplies of all kinds, food, clothing, and medical stores, 
which reached the port for free distribution. 

Fort de France seems to feel the effects of Pelee 's wrath rather 
more than the southern and southeastern part of the island, and it 
is possible an effort will be made to push emigration in that direc- 
tion. 

ST. PIERRE MUST NEVER BE REBUILT. 

Admiral Servan of the French flagship Tage, said : 

"The City of St. Pierre must never be rebuilt. 

"Fort de France must not be allowed to grow any larger. I 



176 The Future Outlook of Martinique. 

shall use my influence to have a new city built on the windward side 
of Martinique, either at Trinite or Caravelle, which shall be the 
capital of the island. 

"I shall also favor having all the French possessions in the West 
Indies put under one governor. ' ' 

The question under discussion by the French Government now is, 
will they fully abandon Martinique or only partially. Of course 
everything in the northern part is covered with ashes from a few 
inches to many feet deep, vegetation is destroyed and there seems 
little likelihood for people in that section to be able to support, them- 
selves. The French Cabinet do not favor abandoning the island, yet 
they are taking every step necessary to do so in case the emergency 
arises. 

MAKE KNOWN THE SITUATION. 

The Minister of the Colonies, M. Decrais, cabled the following 
message to Governor L 'Huerre of Martinique on May 22 : 

' ' Make known, if the situation seems to necessitate partial or total 
evacuation of the island, the means at your disposal, or those you 
may need." 

Investigation as to the necessity of transferring the station is 
going forward as rapidly as possible. The various scientists and 
professors who have gone to Martinique went with a view of deter- 
mining, if possible, the real danger, liability, frequency, etc., so as 
to give the people as near as possible the true status of affairs. 

Dr. Jagger, the Harvard geologist, who went under the auspices 
of the Harvard University, said to a reporter while on his way to the 
West Indies : 

"You ask me what is the interest and value from a scientific 
standpoint of the data afforded by the eruptions of Pelec and 
Soufriere. 

' ' From a theoretic standpoint I am able at the present time to say 
comparatively little. From the newspaper reports practically noth- 
ing can be gathered of any scientific value regarding the causes of 
this terrible accident. I am, therefore, at the present time unwilling 
to commit myself to any extent, by giving out an c^ inion of a theo- 
retic character. 



The Futuee Outlook of Martinique. 177 

' ' The difficulties in the way of finding out any complete informa- 
tion about Pelee and Soufriere are considerable. Those volcanoes 
have not been observed in a scientific manner. The proper instru- 
ments and the proper spirit have not been present. I am going down 
with camera and instruments, and shall do what I can, but it is a 
pity that these volcanoes, about which so little is known, could not 
have been more carefully observed. 

1 ' On the humane side my object is to find out what I can as to 
cause and effect, in order to guard against such terrible loss of life 
in the future, not only in the Caribbean Sea, but in the Philippines, 
in Alaska and in other places where the same danger threatens. Of 
course, if we leam what the indubitable signs are o£ a volcanic out- 
break, the word of warning can be given to the people in time. 

' ' What I can practically do now, is to find out from the natives 
what occurred. The sooner I get there the better, for that purpose, 
but at the best the reports of the people cannot take the place of sci- 
entific observation. The Italian Government has established a regu- 
lar scientific bureau to watch Vesuvius. Nothing similar to that, 
unfortunately, has been instituted in the Islands of the Caribbean. ' ' 

' ' There are two general classes of volcanoes, ' ' said Dr. Jagger. 
c ' One is the type of Baudai-sau, a volcano in Japan. Volcanoes of 
this kind emit very little lava. Their eruptions are like the explo- 
sions of a steam boiler. The explosions are caused by the penetra- 
tion of water to the heated rock, causing an excess of steam and 
a consequent explosion. The explosion comes when the steam pres- 
sure becomes too great for the rock to resist. This type is accom- 
panied by little lava. 

' ' The other type of volcano is of the Vesuvian type ; in this case, 
there is a great flow of lava. This is a later stage, the last stage of 
an eruption, so that Vesuvius is of an old type volcano. ' ' 

"To which of these two types,'' the geologist was asked, "do 
Pelee and Soufriere belong ! ' ' 

"As I said before," Dr. Jagger replied, "we do not know very 
much about these volcanoes. But I believe that Pelee and Soufriere 
belong to the first class, the dry class of volcano. Perhaps they are 
a combination of the two classes, with the first, however, predominat- 
ing. In that case, some, but not much, lava would be emitted. I am 



178 The Future Outlook of Martinique. 

not prepared to say whether the cause of this terrible disaster was 
lava or volcanic mud., but I am inclined to think it was volcanic mud ; 
for these volcanoes, I believe, are of the first class, and are in what 
might be called the hot-water stage. 

"The cause of volcanoes in general," the professor continued, 
* ' is supposed to be continental movements and sudden subterranean 
breaks. In the same way earthquakes are caused. Fissures are pro- 
duced by these movements of the earth's substance, and through 
these fissures water penetrates to the heated rocks, causing the ex- 
plosions. You must remember that this is hypothesis, and that I do 
not present it with absolute scientific certainty. 

' ' A fact that bears out this general hypothesis is that volcanoes 
are mainly along the coast or on islands, where water may easily 
penetrate to the molten rock in case of fissures being formed by the 
movements of the earth's substance." 

' ' If this is the case, ' ' the visitor suggested, ' ' why might not New 
York or Boston, being near the ocean, be the scene some day of a ter- 
rible volcanic eruption 1 ' ■ 

"From all we know," Dr. J agger replied, "that is extremely im- 
probable. It seems to be established that along our coast there is 
very little movement of strata ; and where there is little movement 
of strata, and so few fissures, the opportunity of water penetrating 
to heated rock and causing explosive steam is very slight. ' ' 

FORT DE FRANCE SAFE. 

Professor Robert T. Hill of Washington, who has made a deep 
study of Mont Pelee, was invited by Admiral Servan on board the 
French cruiser Tage, Admiral Servan 's flagship, and had an inter- 
view with him on his recent expedition to Mont Pelee, which lasted 
nearly three hours, and at which United States Consul Ayme acted 
as interpreter. Admiral Servan was deeply interested in what Pro- 
fessor Hill had to say. 

Professor Hill said Mont Pelee might erupt for a year more, 
but that the area of devastation would remain unchanged. As all 
the people had fled from the vicinity of the volcano, no great loss 
of life would now occur. Professor Hill said Fort de France was 
perfectly safe. 



The Future Outlook or Martinique. 179 

ONE MILE OF THE CRATER MAY 28TH. 

Mr. G. J. Kavanaugli, a newspaper man, on May 28th went with- 
in one mile of the crater. He accompanied Professor Hill part way 
up Mont Pelee, then they separated, Professor Hill going in a dif- 
ferent direction. 

GUIDED BY A NEGRESS. 

Mr. Kavanaugli was guided by an aged negress to where an old 
footpath once led to Lake Palmiste, near the summit of the crater. 
There an iron cross twenty feet high was buried in ashes to within 
a foot of its top. Before him stretched upward the mountain slope, 
covered with ashes, which, soaked by the heavy rains and baked by 
the sun and volcano heat, looked like a cement sidewalk. The whole 
mountain top was shrouded in smoke. 

Forgetful of the explosion of the previous night and the awful 
suddenness of the outbursts, and tempted by the seemingly easy 
ascent, he continued upward and made photographs and rough 
sketches. Mr. Kavanaugli found the valley filled with ashes, and two 
great rifts, which he was afraid to approach. 

REALIZED HIS DANGER. 

At 6 in the evening he turned back, reaching Mome Rouge at 
about 9 o 'clock. He had made no new observations, and realized his 
danger only the next morning, when occurred the greatest outburst 
since Mont Pelee 's first eruption. 

Later Mr. Kavanaugli tried to descend to St. Pierre, but failed. 
He found a little hamlet, in a valley near the mountain, black with 
1 50 dead bodies. They were not carbonized, nor had their clothing 
been burned off. Probably this valley lay near the inner edge of the 
zone of blasting flame. 

ON THE EDGE OF THE CRATER, JUNE 1ST. 

After repeated efforts Professor Angels Heilprin, the Philadel- 
phia geologist ; Mr. Kennan, the American traveler, and Mr. Variau, 
on June 1st ascended Mont Pelee, stood on the edge of the crater and 



180 The Future Outlook of Martinique. 

looked down on the incandescent mass within. Mr. Kennan, in writ- 
ing about the awful trip, says : 

' ' Five of us started for the crater of the volcano last Sunday, and 
three of us reached it. We crossed Lake Palmiste, which is now 
dry and full of bowlders and huge, ragged rocks. We then climbed 
on up and reached the edge of the crater. We found it to be a huge 
chasm, or crevasse, with perpendicular walls. We could not see 
down into the crater more than one hundred and fifty feet. It was 
like looking into a white hot furnace. The chasm opens out toward 
St. Pierre, but the enormous columns of steam cut off the view in 
that direction. There were hundreds of fumaroles all about us. 
What was thought to be a cone of cinders in the crater was learned 
in reality to be a huge pile of gigantic rocks. There were crusts of 
sulphur everywhere, but we saw no ashes or cinders in or near the 
crater. The whole vast bed of the old crater and of Lake Palmiste 
is emitting steam through thousands of orifices. 

ASCENT FULL OF PERILS. 

"The ascent to Lake Palmiste is up a long and sharp incline, 
covered with ashes. These had been soaked by the rain, and as we 
proceeded there were terrifying gorges full of hot, volcanic debris 
on each side of us. Every footstep dislodged ashes and our footing- 
was most insecure. There were also clouds of sulphurous smoke, 
through which the sunlight swept at intervals. The ascent was the 
most terrifying experience of my life, yet Professor Heilprin the 
previous day had sat enveloped in darkness on the lip of what was 
once Lake Palmists, and had descended the horrible arete in a thun- 
der storm of volcanic clouds and almost complete darkness. ' ' 

MR. KENNAN'S TWELVE DAYS' TRIP. 

The world was startled the last of May by a report that George 
Kennan, the Siberian traveler, had presumedly been swallowed up 
by the wrath of Pelee while on a trip of discovery and investigation. 
This information, which spread like wild-fire, caused the hearts of 
the American people to stand still and wonder what would come next, 
but, fortunately for the world, Mr, Kennan. turned up safe, although 



The Futuke Outlook of Maetinique. 181 

not perfectly sound, for he has passed through experiences that were 
enough to make the youngest gray. In his own words, we give the 
detail of his trip. He started out with a party of four, not including 
himself. He says : 

"May 23 we went to Vive plantation, the property of Herman 
Clerc. Vive is on the River Capot, into which flows the River Fal- 
laise from the new crater. Vive is in the new volcanic area, and our 
position there was dangerous. May 24 we went to Basse Pointe. On 
the 25th we went to St. Pierre and returned to Basse Pointe hy way 
of Morne Rouge. Our party was the first to make this trip. We fol- 
lowed the old road to the point where the volcanic tornado had swept 
across it, and from there we followed down the track of the tornado. 
The spectacle here was truly appalling. There were numberless 
bodies on every side. 

GET NEAR VIEW OF AN ERUPTION. 

' ' On the night of the 26th occurred the great explosion of the vol- 
cano. All that day Mont Pelee had been vomiting masses of yellow, 
mud-colored vapor. We now know that this presages a serious ex- 
plosion. We heard fearful detonations during the 26th, and huge 
columns of black smoke, alive with lightning-like and terrifying 
flashes, rose from the crater. One column, which rose to the height 
of a mile and a half, was lit up like fire from the fierce reflection of 
the incandescent mass within the crater. The population of Vive 
plantation became panic-stricken at the eruption and went to Acier, 
two miles farther away. 

"Another enormous explosion occurred the morning of the 28th, 
and Vive was declared to be untenable. We all abandoned the plan- 
tation, and, taking furniture, bedding, and provisions, we went to 
Acier, which, from that day, was our base. 

' ' The 29th we spent at Morne Rouge questioning eye witnesses 
of the catastrophe of May 8. The 30th we tried to ascend to the 
crater, along the Gale basse divide. From the crest of the divide we 
had a wonderful view into the awful Fallaise Valley, which was a 
tremendous, seething gorge of terrible volcanic activity. We were 
driven back by a severe thunder storm, and nearly lost each other in 



182 The Futuke Outlook of Martinique. 

the dense volcanie clouds. We planted a record stake at the highest 
point we reached on which we inscribed our names. 

VOLCANIC CLOUDS ADD TO DANGERS. 

"On the 31st we returned to Acier, and at 6:30 o'clock in the 
evening Professor Heilprin and Mr. Leadbetter came down from 
their splendid attempt to reach the rim of the crater. Professor Heil- 
prin said he and Mr. Leadbetter had been enveloped in volcanic 
clouds and a thunder storm, and that they therefore did not reach 
the actual edge of the crater itself. I fully realized Professor Heil- 
prin 's danger the next day when we made the ascent. 

"On Sunday, June 1, the five members of our party, Professor 
Heilprin, Mr. Leadbetter, Mr. Jaccaci, Mr. Varain, and myself, 
started to make the ascent. Mr. Jaccaci came down with the moun- 
tain fever on the Arete, and Mr. Leadbetter became exhausted. They 
did not reach the crater. 

"We had a good time and a hard time both. The traveling was 
exceedingly rough, trying and fatiguing. The vegetation was loaded 
with ashes, which fell upon us at the least touch. We were often 
exposed to great dangers, but happily there was not the slightest 
accident. ' ' 

HEILPRIN'S ACCOUNT OF JOURNEY. 

Referring to his expedition, Professor Heilprin said to-day: "I 
left Fort de France with Mr. Leadbetter the morning of May 29, 
and reached Acier at 7 o 'clock in the evening of the 30th. We visited 
Vive and Basse Pointe. The latter place has been entirely destroyed 
by the overflow of the local streams. Mud flowing into the beds of 
the rivers there caused this overflow. 

The first ascent has already been described. Regarding the sec- 
ond Dr. Heilprin said : 

JOINS WITH GEORGE KENNAN. 

' ' At Acier we met George Kennan and his party and determined 
to attempt a second ascent the next day, June 1. The ascent made 
this day with Mr. Kennan was more trying and difficult than the 
one I had previously made with Mr. Leadbetter. 




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Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

THE STORY OF MARTINIQUE'S AWEUL CALAMITY. 
Erom a drawing as described by a survivor who visited the spot the second day 

after the catastrophe. 



The Future Outlook of Martinique. 185 

"The day was intensely hot and it was raining. When we 
reached the old crater it was again enveloped in vapor. The tem- 
perature of the basin of Lake Palmiste, taken three inches below the 
surface, was 124 degrees Fahrenheit. We reached the edge of the 
new crater, and from where we stood we could have dropped stones 
into the white-hot mass within. 

' ' The new crater is a crevasse, running north and south and ex- 
panding into a bowl. This crevasse nearly rifted the mountain; it 
runs transversely tc the old crater and might be called a huge gash. 
From it volcanic material has been freely erupted. The principal 
output of the crater, while we were there, was steam. The phenom- 
enon was limited and was not essentially different from that of other 
volcanoes in action. 

NO LAVA FLOWED FROM CRATER. 

' ' Positive assurance was gained that no molten matter has flowed 
over the lip of the new crater. Several observations taken with the 
aneroid barometer showed that the height of Mont Pelee has not 
been changed. I agree with Professor Robert T. Hill, the geologist 
of the United States government, that Mont Pelee has erupted no 
lava and that there has been no cataclysm or any serious topograph- 
ical alterations. No cinder cone was visible in the crater ; what was 
taken for a cone is a pile of ejected rocks. Perhaps the bottom of the 
new crater may contain cinder cone, but we could see down only 
about 150 or 200 feet. I believe, however, that the crater is much 
deeper than this. I do not know the exact materials of which the 
pile of rocks in the center of the crater is composed ; but it seems 
to be matter which has been ejected from the crevasse. This pile 
of rocks has no vent. 

' ' I think Mont Pelee has freed itself from the interior pressure, 
and that the volcano is not liable to further violent eruption. It is 
not safe, however, to make predictions about volcanoes. 

MONT PELEE HOLDS RECORD. 

4 : The eruption of Mont Pelee of May 8 was unique in that it re- 
sulted in the greatest destruction of life and property ever known 



186 The Future Outlook of Martinique. 

by direct agency of a volcano. The phenomenon of explosion of 
flaming gases is probably new, but a careful study of observations 
is necessary before an opinion can be reached. The electrical phe- 
nomena are also new. For rapidity of action and for lives lost Mont 
Pelee holds the record among volcanoes. ' ' 

AT EDGE OF SUMMIT. 

Professor Heilprin remained at the summit for over two hours. 
When he returned to Vive he resembled a statue of mud. The weight 
of ashes and mud he carried on his person, the horrible atmosphere 
he breathed and the fearful difficulties he encountered reduced him 
to a condition of extreme fatigue, notwithstanding the fact that he 
ascended Mont Pelee from the most accessible and easiest side. 

George Kennan and his party, who went to Morne Rouge, found, 
on their return trip, that a bridge across the road had been carried 
away by a torrent of hot mud. Negroes managed to get the party 
across the obstruction. They took the carriages to pieces and car- 
ried them and the members of the party to the other side of the river 
of mud, which was still hot. 

PROF. HEILPRIN'S IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. 

The professor made the important discovery that the ciater at the 
head of the River Fallaise has synchronous eruptions with the crater 
at the summit of the volcano, and that it ejects precisely the same 
matter at such times. The River Fallaise crater and the crater at 
the summit showed during Professor Heilprin 's visit a new phenom- 
enon. Mud was thrown up in high columns. Heretofore the mud 
has bubbled or boiled out and flowed downward in huge streams. 
In the course of one eruption of the River Fallaise crater an enor- 
mous mass of intensely hot mud was ejected. This flow reached the 
rum distillery on the Vive plantation and extinguished all the fires 
there. 

WONDERFUL AID TO SCIENCE. 

The work accomplished by the men who risked their lives will do 
untold good for science and doubtless be the means of enabling the 



The Future Outlook or Martinique. 187 

governments to tell with a considerable accuracy what had best be 
done. Already confidence is being some restored. 

DISCOVERER'S WARNING OF ERUPTIONS. 

C. G. Borchgrevink, the explorer, one of the three scientists to 
visit St. Pierre, has gone to Washington to present his report to the 
National Geographical Society. 

He said, when interviewed on the subject : i i My going in an offi- 
cial capacity prevents me from saying much until after I have made 
a report at Washington, but I am at liberty to tell you that I have 
secured valuable data, which I think will enable scientists in the 
future to foretell when an eruption will take place. ' ' 

The explorer, like many others, risked his life in an effort to 
determine when eruptions would take place. In speaking of the 
perils of the trip, he says : 

''One day while walking around at the foot of the mountain a 
jet of steam came out of a place in the ground over which we had 
just passed. If it had struck any of us we would have been scalded 
to death, as it was the vapor blew all around us. ' ' 

NEW U. S. CONSUL TO MARTINIQUE. 

Already the United States is making plans to send a new consul 
to Martinique. President Roosevelt has found a competent man will- 
ing to undergo the dangers of another eruption of Mont Pelee in 
the Island of Martinique. He is John F. Jewell, of Galena, 111. His 
nomination to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Consul Prentis 
at St. Pierre was sent to the Senate June 4 and confirmed the same 
day. 

Mr. Jewell 's appointment is the result of his appearance before 
the Board of Officers of the State Department, for examination rela- 
tive to his fitness to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Consul 
Prentis. Mr. Jewell will be stationed at Fort de France, the new 
home of the American Consulate, and will begin the official discharge 
of his duties at once. 



188 The Futuee Outlook of Martinique. 

THE FUTURE OF ST. VINCENT. 

The reports from the various scientists regarding Martinique 
seem to indicate that the inhabitants of the lower part of the island 
are safe, at least for the present, and that Fort de France is in no 
danger. With St. Vincent, however, it is somewhat different. The 
lava ejected is of a different nature, the ocean bed seems to be chang- 
ing, and the eruptions still continue. 

LA SOUFRIERE'S ERUPTION, JUNE 1ST. 

An eruption occurred at 3 o 'clock on the morning of June 1. It 
was accompanied by a thunderous noise and a. shock of earthquake, 
while volumes of dense vapor ascended to such a height that it was 
visible from Kingstown. The vapor formed a thick cloud over the 
crater of the volcano and this cloud was illuminated as if by fire. 
In the crater itself the lightning was more vivid than upon any pre- 
vious occasion. No damage was done and the eruption ceased at the 
end of an hour. 

TRYING TO REACH SUMMIT. 

The American scientist who started to ascend Soufriere is still 
striving to reach the summit. During the intervals when the vol- 
cano was quiet, June 29, he reached a point almost half way up the 
mountain. He reports to the awe of the inhabitants that the Island 
of St. Vincent may subside. There are clear indications, he says, 
that a considerable portion of the leeward district will subside. Ow- 
ing to the continuous rain there have been heavy floods in the wind- 
ward district of the island and many houses have been washed away 
or filled with mud. At Kabacca a large brick building was washed 
into the sea. 

A visitor to the spot says : " It is almost impossible to convey any 
idea of the desolate appearance of the country beyond the fifteen- 
mile post; that is, fifteen miles from Kingstown and seven from 
Georgetown. The whole place looks as if millions of barrels of ce- 
ment had been emptied over the land, covering every inch of ground 
with a coat of dismal gray." 



The Future Outlook of Martinique. 189 

A citizen of Kingstown writes, under date of May 22, saying: "I 
have just returned from visiting the leeward side of the island. La 
Soufriere is still very active. Lava is streaming into the sea, while 
clouds of sulphurous smoke, extending for miles, obscure the land 
and compelled us to steam seaward at full speed. We rescued 120 
Caribs from Cura, twenty-five miles from here. We saw another 
crater, between La Soufriere and Chateau Belair, emitting stones, 
and also smaller vents elsewhere. 

' ' The food of the peasantry is ruined and everywhere the island 
is blighted for fruit and vegetables. Cattle are being shipped to 
other islands for pasturage. The laborers in the sugar districts have 
killed their horses for food and are now dying from diseases of the 
intestines caused by the lava dust. ' ' 

ANALYSIS OF LA SOUFRIERE DUST. 

The West India Committee of London ordered a sample of the 
volcanic dust thrown out by the eruption of La Soufriere, Island of 
St. Vincent, A preliminary chemical examination made by Profes- 
sor D 'Albuquerque, results in the opinion that the dust when mixed 
with heavy clay lands might tend to improve the texture of the sur- 
face layers, although it has no fertilizing capacity. The dust is very 
minute, being almost -like common flour, but of a grayish brown 
color. 

Dr. Langfield Smith also examined the sample and found the 
dust to consist of volcanic minerals and glass, the former predomi- 
nating. The minerals were chiefly silicates of iron and magnesia, 
there being also a considerable proportion of quartz and some pot- 
ash and feldspar. Tie compared the volcanic iron with a sample of 
that which fell on the island in 1812 and found that the two differ 
greatly. The dust of 1812 was much finer and contained very few 
mineral crystals, consisting chiefly of dark brown volcanic glass. 
This is not encouraging to the agriculturist. 

BRITISH GOVERNMENT REMOVES PEOPLE. 

A dispatch to the Daily Mail from Kingston, Jamaica, dated 
May 15, says that Colonial Secretary Olivier informed the Legisla- 



190 The Future Outlook op Martinique. 

five Assembly on Wednesday that the imperial government would 
probably abandon St. Vincent in consequence of successive catas- 
trophes there and deport the entire population to British Guiana, 
Trinidad, and Jamaica. 

OPINION OF THE JAMAICA LEGISLATURE. 

When the Legislature of Jamaica contributed $5,000 for the relief 
of St. Vincent, Secretary Olivier said it was not certain the imperial 
government would see the desirability, in the interests of the inhabi- 
tants, of evacuating the Island of St. Vincent. He knew Great Brit- 
ain years ago considered a scheme for distributing the inhabitants 
among the other islands and thought the recent hurricane and pres- 
ent calamity should decide the course of the government, 

PHYSICAL CHANGES IN ST. VINCENT. 

Recent discoveries have been made regarding physical changes 
on St. Vincent resulting from the eruptions. Several fissures have 
been observed on La Soufriere. The estate of Walibou has disap- 
peared and has been replaced by an inlet of the sea. Richmond, an 
estate adjacent to Walibou, which was formerly flat, and upon which 
there were several laborers' cottages, has been completely burned, 
and out of the estate there now arises a large ridge of ground. It is 
generally believed that the Rabacci crater, in the Windward district 
of the island, has also erupted. 

CLOUD ILLUMINED BY FLASHES. 

From a distance, La Soufriere, although less violent, still wears 
a cap of dark clouds, which is lumined every now and then by flashes 
of red light. 

Volcanic dust falls daily, but fortunately there have been also 
several heavy rain showers which have washed away the dust from 
the grass and restoring verdure of the fields. The condition of the 
atmosphere is also apparently improving. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RUMBLING THROUGHOUT THE CARIBBEAN SEA. 

Volcanic Islands of the West Indies — Hon- Volcanic Islands — Topography- 
Liable to Change Islands in which the United States are Interested — 
Sinking of Ocean Bed — Interesting Speculations — Earthquake in Guate- 
mala — Other Cities Damaged, etc., etc. 

It Las been asked over and over again if there is danger of vol- 
canic eruption on all the islands of the Caribbean Sea and the land 
adjacent, and if the earth's crust is really thinner at this point, as 
it has been suggested. We answer this by saying: 

The thinness of the earth's crust throughout the zone of the 
Caribbean Sea and the territory adjacent seems to be proven by the 
recent rumblings throughout its vicinity. The long isthmus that 
oounds the west side of the Caribbean Sea and connects the con- 
tinents of North and South America forms a volcanic belt marked 
by a line of volcanoes frequently in eruption, and seismic disturb- 
ances at one point or another along the belt are so common as to 
excite little attention except when of great severity. 

On the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea volcanic eruptions 
and seismic disturbances have not been so frequent of late years, 
the volcanoes being either quiescent or apparently extinct, although 
occasional earth tremors suggest a possibility of sudden destructive 
outbreak. 

NOT ALL OF WEST INDIAN ISLANDS VOLCANIC. 

It has been stated that all of the West Indian islands are vol- 
canic. This is not true. The Bahamas are coralline ; the Greater 
Antilles (Cuba, Porto Rico, etc.) are composed of floating sediment 
bordered by coralline formations. The Windward Islands are in 
two parallel groups, the eastern being composed of lime and other 
sea-made debris, and the western group volcanic in origin. The 
latter are, in fact, parts of a chain of volcanic mountains rising out 
of the sea. Little more than the peaks appear above the water. 

191 



192 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

Some of these islands liave only one volcanic peak upon them; 
others two or more, with connecting hills and valleys. The volcanic 
islands are Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Christopher (or St. Kitts), 
Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, 
St. Vincent and Grenada. Between St. Vincent and Grenada are 
the Grenadines, a line of 600 separate rocks appearing above the 
sea. 

ISLANDS IN WHICH THE UNITED STATES ARE INTERESTED. 

Volcanic or earthquake disturbances in any one locality are 
likely to stir into activity other volcanoes, especially those belong- 
ing to the same group, and there is danger, therefore, of fresh out- 
breaks in all the islands named as volcanic. Other islands, such as 
Barbados, are near enough to be damaged by violent eruptions. 
Cuba, Porto Rico, the Danish West Indies and other islands in 
which the United States is especially interested are not likely to 
suffer, except, perhaps, from tidal waves, and we might add that 
unless the topography of the West Indies should undergo a great 
change. 

TOPOGRAPHY LIKELY TO CHANGE. 

The topography of the West Indian group may be entirely 
changed by these convulsions of nature, old islands disappearing 
and new ones taking their place. The violent explosions are sup- 
posed to be due to the breaking down of the thin crust and the 
admission of the sea to the intensely hot interior of the earth. Vast 
effects may be produced by such explosions. Twenty years ago 
the great craters of Krakatoa built up in a night a mountain eight 
miles in diameter to a height of two miles above the water. The 
accompanying explosions were heard at a distance of 2,000 miles. 
Tidal waves were sent around the world, and for months afterwards 
the atmosphere of the globe was so filled with volcanic dust that 
brilliant sunsets were produced here and in England. The force 
of volcanic explosions is not all directed upward, but profoundly 
affects the crust of the earth, leading thus to other explosions. 

Some geologists hold that a continental body of land once 
occupied more or less of the area now covered by the Caribbean 



Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 193 

Sea, and connected the Atlantic States of the American Republic 
to the northern shores of South America. When this land was sub- 
merged at some remote period, the summits of the mountains and 
high lands only remained above the waves, and these constitute the 
islands which make up the groups of a most extensive archipelago. 

INTERESTING SPECULATIONS. 

The revelations of geology as to the structure and probable his- 
tory of the islands in question present material for most interesting 
speculations, and recalls Plato's remarkable narratives of the lost 
continent of Atalantis. In his books, entitled "Timaeus" and 
"Kritias," Plato relates matters which he had derived from 
Solon, one of the celebrated wise men of Greece. Solon, in order to 
complete his education, had visited Egypt, then the repository of 
all ancient knowledge, and engaged in a course of study with the 
priests at Sais, who conducted a sort of university. 

The information secured by Solon was to the effect that there 
had formerly existed a great island, or continental mass of land in 
the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the shores of Spain and Africa. It 
was inhabited by a warlike and enterprising people, who possessed 
•great wealth and a high degree of civilization, and had many ships, 
in Avhich they traded far and wide on the seas, and carried military 
invasion into other countries. The Atalanteans had carried on wars 
with the nations along the Mediterranean Sea as far as Greece, 
when, at a period described to be 9,000 years before Solon's time, 
the country of Atalantis began to suffer from earthquakes and vol- 
canic eruptions, and, as a result of those terrestrial convulsions, the 
entire country sank out of sight in the ocean, leaving only those of 
the population who escaped in ships to tell the story of the destruc- 
tion of a continent and possibly its millions of inhabitants. 

No person who pretends to have any scientific knowledge be- 
lieves that Plato's story is anything more than a mere creation of 
the imagination, and no more credence is given to it than is accorded 
by the great lights of the higher Biblical criticism to what they 
denominate the myths and fables of the Mosaic writings. Never- 
theless, it is impossible to reject the geologic, the archaeologic and 



194 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

the ethnologic evidences that there have been great changes in the 
conformation and locations of the continents, islands and seas on 
our globe. 

There are vast continental areas of solid land which were once 
deep under the ocean, and doubtless there are seas now covering 
areas that were once dry land. 

FORMING A CONTINENT. 

Dr. Herbert E. Gregory, professor of geology at Yale Univer- 
sity, in a discussion of the St. Pierre disaster, said that, in his 
opinion, later reports from the Island of Martinique would show, 
what has not yet been reported, that earthquakes preceded the 
eruption of Mont Pelee. 

"Such earthquakes," said Professor Gregory, "almost inva- 
riably precede eruptions of this kind, and I believe such a condi- 
tion will be found to be true of Mont Pelee. I surmise that there 
were a series of earthquakes, ending in a number of explosions in 
the volcano, and then a final bursting out of the main mass, which 
was so destructive. 

"It is not likely that sea water had anything to do with the 
original explosion. The saturated rocks in the mountain itself 
must have burst into steam when the pressure was relieved. The 
whole top of the volcano was first blown off. Then the mass ex- 
ploded in midair, falling in fire dust on the city, while mud and lava 
poured out of the orifice. 

"It is quite likely that earthquakes will follow now in neighbor- 
ing and sympathetic regions. The whole chain of islands in the 
Caribbean Sea is undergoing a change from island to continental 
structure, as is Japan. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc., will 
continue till this is completed. In time the whole chain will be a 
new continent, connected by land surface throughout." 

BED OF OCEAN HAS SUNK. 

Scientists have been particularly interested in me story brought 
from Guadeloupe, where a French cable ship that has been tak- 



Rumbling Theotjghoijt the Caribbean Sea. 195 

ing soundings in connection with the recent breaking of the cable 
has discovered that the bed of the ocean in certain parts has sunk 
to an enormous depth. Where the lead showed formerly a depth 
of 900 feet there is now a depth of 4,000 feet to be fathomed. This 
was at some distance from Point a Pitre, and it is argued by those 
who understand the configuration of the earth's crust and the for- 
mation of the islands that such a serious change at so great a dis- 
tance from the scene of the two disasters— Martinique and St. Vin- 
cent—means that the volcanic agencies are likely to produce still 
greater changes in the West Indies. 

MAY INVOLVE WHOLE OF ISLANDS. 

The islands, from St. Vincent in the south to St. Thomas and 
even Jamaica in the north, form a continuous chain of volcanic 
craters rising from the ocean bed. These enormous chimneys pen- 
etrate through the ocean bed to the substratum of molten lava and 
elementary substances that is ever seething and boiling. 

These islands resting upon submarine volcanoes, some of which 
are still active, are extremely beautiful, covered with a wealth of 
vegetation, producing great crops of tropical products, with an 
agreeable climate except in the hottest part of the year, with the 
brightest of skies and the bluest of waters. Science is powerless 
to tell, however, when some of the volcanoes will burst forth again, 

EARTHQUAKE IN GUATEMALA. 

Coincident with the brief cable dispatches reporting the fearful 
destruction of the City of St. Pierre, Island of Martinique, in the 
West Indies, came letter correspondence from Guatemala relating 
the details of the earthquake disaster in that republic on the 18th 
of April. A city and fifteen smaller towns were completely wiped 
out, while the dead were so numerous that their bodies could not 
be buried but instead were burned. 

On the night of April 18, at the capital, a blinding flash of light- 
ning, followed by a thunderstorm and torrents of rain, all in the 
space of a few minutes, caused the people in the streets to rush for 



196 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

shelter. In an instant, however, an earthquake was upon them. 
Rushing frantically into the darkness and through flooded streets, 
anywhere away from the straining rafters and crackling walls, ran 
the multitude, crying, praying and a few trying to sing "Salve 
Regina. ' ' 

The following shocks were less severe, and by 10 o'clock many 
of the inhabitants were wandering about, examining the walls of 
the cathedral of Santa Teresa, La Recollection and other churches 
which were more or less damaged. 

News soon began to come in from the hill country, where Que- 
saltenango is situated. This, the second city of the republic, suf- 
fered by far the most. Hundreds of residences and public build- 
ings were either totally destroyed or seriously damaged. The very 
narrow streets, often not over three or four yards wide, and the ir- 
regular manner in which the town is built, served to make death 
traps of the houses, so that, although not half of the debris has 
yet been removed, fully 200 bodies have been recovered and many 
persons were badly injured. Fire, as well as flood, added to the 
horror of the night, with the result that many people have gone 
insane and others have committed suicide. 

The sessions of the National Congress at Guatemala City have 
been suspended. The meetings of the national commission for the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition were continued without interrup- 
tion for two hours, though the shocks made the large crystal chan- 
deliers swing like pendulums over the heads of the commissioners. 
Approximately 50,000 people have been left homeless, and public, 
as well as private, subscriptions are being raised to prevent the 
poor people from starving. 

OTHER CITIES DAMAGED. 

Death and damage to property is also reported to have resulted 
in the cities of San Marcus, San Pedro, San Juan Ostancalco, 
Tucana, Mazatenango and Cuyotenango. These cities have from 
3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants each. Much damage was done on the 
coffee plantations and at the ports of Ocos and Champerico, on the 
Pacific. 



Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 11)7 

NOT A HOUSE STANDING. 

The land upon which Ocos stands was converted by the subter- 
ranean disturbance into a heavy sea of lava and ashes. The earth 
rolled up in three distinct waves, which still rear their crests where 
they stood when the convulsions ceased. Between each wave is a 
wide, deep crack, and the earth in every direction is seared by open- 
ings of apparently soundless depths. There is not a house in Ocos 
left standing on its foundation. The river banks were squeezed 
together and the stream is now twenty feet narrower than before. 

The bed of the river gave up the ghost of a wreck that disap- 
peared in the mud five years ago. The spot has long been pointed 
out as the grave of a sunken vessel, but there was no sign visible to 
indicate that it was still there. When the earthquake came and 
squeezed the river banks together it forced the wreck from the mud 
and returned it high and dry. The railroad bridge across the river 
was telescoped by the contraction of the banks, and the wharf, 
'which was Ocos' pride, now stands a monument to the earthquake's 
ruthless strength, a misshapen mass. 

LOSS OF 4,000 LIVES. 

The City of Escuintla, capital of the Guatemalean province of 
the same name, was almost completely destroyed. The shock was 
only felt for forty seconds at Guatemala. At Escuintla the shock 
was felt for about two minutes and houses were cracked and de- 
stroyed, hundreds being buried in the ruins and struck by the fall- 
ing timbers and stones. 

The loss of life was variuusly estimated at from 3,000 to 5,000 
in the City of Escuintla. 

The City of Escuintla had a population of about 10,000 people 
before the shock, which cut ravines in the fields and shook many 
of the city's houses and buildings to wrecks. The greater portion 
of these were left homeless and in distress as a result of the shocks. 

SCENES WERE FRIGHTFUL. 

According to stories in San Jose after the earthquake the scenes 
in Escuintla. and some of the other cities of that province which 



198 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

suffered the most were terrible. The bodies of victims were being 
dug from the ruins of homes and picked up from the streets by 
soldiers and others. Carts were being heaped with dead, which 
were buried in trenches. 

In San Jose, the capital of the central province of Guatemala, 
1,000 buildings were destroyed by the earthquake and three people 
were killed. Travelers coining into the city reported that the rail- 
way had been much damaged and progress was delayed, for em- 
bankments had been badly cracked and rails spread in man3 r places. 

The stories of death and destitution were coming into San Jose 
from all sides before the Grafton sailed from there two days after 
the earthquake, the worst stories being received from Escuintla, 
which province suffered the most. The number of homeless in 
Guatemala as a result of the destruction caused by the earthquake 
was computed at 30,000. It is feared a famine will follow. 

Esalco, the burning mountain in Salvador, has been extinct for 
ten months, and during that time there have been frequent earth- 
quakes and tidal waves. 

LETTER FROM AN EYE-WITNESS. 

The following extract from a letter dated April 26th, 1902, 
from D. Ingle Burton, who was in Guatemala City, Central Amer- 
ica, during the recent earthquake disturbances, is here reproduced : 

' ' Since writing you the above there has been trouble in our 
peaceful land— trouble which has saddened the hearts of many 
and which has not even been so merciful as to spare the lives of 
hundreds. 

"Last Friday all day long, and unlike most of days in this 
country, the earth was enwrapped beneath a great shadow of clouds 
which lolled around the mountain peaks, and the sun-kissed breezes 
of the tropics refused to drive away the unwelcome shadows from 
the flowery earth. 

"The day passed by heavily and as evening approached the 
clouds increased in density ; then thunder roared, lightning flashed 
and torrents of rain drenched Old Mother Earth ; but this was not 
all that happened ; before the storm cloud had passed, even before 



Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 199 

the rain had subsided, Old Mama Earth, refusing to longer main- 
tain her name ' Terra Firma, ' got up like a lion from her peaceful 
slumbers and shook herself as though in defiance of the storm and 
deluge of water. The first shock lasted fifty seconds and was the 
hardest, earthquake shock this country has had since the destruc- 
tion of the old capital, Antigua, two centuries ago. The city of 
Quatzaltanango was the city to surfer the most, being almost a 
total mass of ruins. The first report we had from there was that 
three hundred people had been killed and a little later the number 
was doubled, and continued to increase as the extent of the awful 
calamity was more fully known, and now the number is said to be 
more correctly estimated at eight thousand. 

"Thirty-seven distinct shocks have been felt, and the Volcano 
Santa Ana has broken out in eruption, emitting flame and lava, and 
it is said that the once beautiful city of Quatzaltanango on her sunny 
slopes, and now in ruins, is rapidly being abandoned by those who 
survived. It is said that the highways leading into the stricken 
city are in many places impassable, being cut to pieces by great 
cracks which extend down into the bowels of the earth. Quatzalta- 
nango was a city of about 40,000 people. 

' ' Other smaller towns in the western part of the country suffered 
in proportion, and much valuable country property was destroyed. 
Relief funds are being raised by public subscription all over the 
country and committees sent out to bury the dead and care for the 
wounded. It was an awful tiling just to see how the buildings 
tumbled to the ground like cob houses into a mass of ruins, burying 
their inmates beneath the debris like so many rats. 

"Business practically suspended all over the Republic and the 
government is suppressing the news as much as possible from 
going abroad, fearing that people hearing of this will be afraid to 
teome to the country, but I consider this all nonsense, for such a 
thing is liable to visit any country. Don't we have cyclones in the 
West, and don't people go there? It is only a few years since St. 
Louis was almost swept off of the earth by a cyclone, and not many 
years ago Charleston, S. C, was visited by the greatest earthquake 
our present generation has ever known, and to-day these two par- 
ticular cities are the most prosperous in America." 



200 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

RETALBULEN, GUATEMALA, DESTROYED. 

The town of Retalbulen, situated at the foot of Mount Tacona, 
in Guatemala, was buried under a mass of lava, stones, and ashes 
thrown from the volcanic crater, and 1,000 of its people perished. 

Mount Tacona had been restless ever since the great earthquake 
of April 18, which destroyed the city of Quezaltenango. 

For weeks a black pall of smoke hung over its summit and the 
glare from the crater frequently illuminated the sky. Many of the 
inhabitants of Retalbulen fled from their homes to places of safety. 

When the eruption at last broke forth in its full fury showers 
of lava, ashes and stones were ejected and covered the country for 
miles around. The Bay of Champanico was a mass of floating pum- 
ice and ashes. 

GREAT ANXIETY IN GUADELOUPE. 

A report from Guadeloupe dated May 10 says that frequent 
thunderstorms visited the island and the people were panic-stricken 
lest their volcano would burst forth. The earth was trembling at 
Basseterre and volcanic rumblings were heard. 

The mountains of Guadeloupe were shrouded in thick clouds 
and frequent heavy storms continued. 

A NEW VOLCANO DISCOVERED. 

Captain Hansen of the Norwegian steamship Talisman discov- 
ered May 13th a volcanic eruption, hitherto unreported, on Diamond 
Rock, an uninhabited little island about two miles southeast of 
Diamond Hill, the extreme southwest point of Martinique. The 
apex of the rock is 574 feet above the sea. 

The Talisman drew near the rock before sunrise on May 13. 
Captain Hansen noticed a bright light near the top of the rock. 
He thought at first it was the searchlight of a warship. As dawn 
broke and the light was still glowing he decided that it was likely 
that refugees from Martinique were on the rock burning signals for 
assistance. 

Captain Hansen steamed within 1,000 feet and noticed that the 
glow was from a hole in the rocks. While he was steaming closer 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE'S INHABITANTS. 
The above picture shows how the people were caught, killed and partially buried 
by the streams of molten lava as it rolled down to the sea. 



Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 203 

there was a great whiff of fire and smoke from the hole shooting 
down toward the sea, instead of skyward. It was like a puff from a 
big gun on a rampart. The outpour of fire and smoke grew worse, 
and the captain decided to get out of range and headed on his course. 

TIDAL WAVE AT JAMAICA. 

Two days before the disaster at St. Pierre the master of the 
British steamer Grand Lake reported that while the steamer was 
loading fruit at Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, May 6, the quays be- 
came flooded to the extent that it was impossible to take on the 
usual amount of cargo. The officers knew nothing of the disaster 
which befell St. Pierre until they reached Providence, R. I., May 13. 

COLIMA VOLCANO AWAKE. 

A message dated Guadalajara, Mexico, May 12, says: The 
Colima volcano shows strong indications of a great eruption, and 
the inhabitants living in the valley at its base are moving to a safe 
distance from the peak, from which smoke and puffs of flame have 
been belched forth for several days past. 

Mont Colima has been showing indications of renewed activity 
for several weeks, and this threatening condition caused the work 
of constructing the extension of the Mexican Central Railroad to 
Manzanillo, passing near the base of the mountain, to cease tem- 
porarily. 

The route of the Mexican Central extension will probably be 
changed in order to avoid any possible disaster that an eruption 
might bring. 

M0M0T0MB0 GRUMBLING. 

A special dispatch to the Boston Herald from New Orleans, La., 
under date of May 14, 1902, says : Passengers arriving on the steam- 
er Breakwater from Nicaragua report volcanic disturbances and 
earthquakes in that republic apparently connected with the recent 
similar disturbances in Guatemala. 

The center of the disturbances was the old volcano Momotombo, 
which lies near the northwest end of Lake Managua, a continuation 
of Lake Nicaragua, and not far from the capital, Managu. 



204 Rumbling Throughout the Caribbean Sea. 

The volcano, which has never been entirely extinct, began smok- 
ing several weeks ago. Latterly it has been discharging showers 
of ashes, accompanied by great quantities of smoke, with a ram- 
bling noise. 

MONT SOCONUSCO ACTIVE. 

A special to the New York Times from Oaxaea, Mexico, clatea 
May 15, says : Reports received at the office of the Federal Tele- 
graph Company in Oaxaea from various points in the southeastern 
part of the State of Chiapaz, show that the volcanic and seismic dis- 
turbances in the West Indies and Guatemala are being severely felt 
in that mountainous part of Mexico. 

The volcano of Mont Soconusco, located in the State of Mexico, 
about five miles from the Guatemala border, has been showing 
strong signs of an active eruption ever since the recent series of 
earthquakes occurred in Guatemala and that part of Mexico. The 
volcano has an altitude of more than 7,000 feet, and a strong flow 
of lava from its crater would do great damage to the cultivated 
farms and homes which lie in the valleys at its base. 

Smoke has been issuing from the old crater of Mont Soconusco 
for several days, and slight tremblings of the earth are felt at in- 
tervals every day. 

SLIGHT EARTHQUAKES IN FLORIDA. 

Almost continuous shocks, presumably of earthquake, were felt 
in St. Augustine from 9 o'clock until midnight on the evening of 
May 20th. 

The earthquake was accompanied by a succession of short but 
decisive reports, like distant cannonading, seemingly from far out 
at sea. The sounds were unlike thunder, having no reverberating 
roll, and 'were accompanied by decided tremors, while the sky in 
the southeast was suffused with a glow. 

The above disturbances indicate the sympathy existing between 
the islands of the Caribbean Sea and the mainland adjacent to the 
sea. Scientists are hard at work to find out, if possible, the real 
cause ; also when repetitions are likely to again occur, and what the 
outcome will be. 



CHAPTER X. 
STORIES OF MARTINIQUE SURVIVORS. 

No. 1 Story of the Destruction— No. 2 Story of the Destruction— A Cyclone of 
Gas— Story of an Officer on the Danish Ship Valkyrien— Pitiful Story of a 
Sailor on the Roraima. 

I have been asked to close the West India disasters with a 
chapter devoted entirely to stories told by the survivors. As is 
usually the case in all great catastrophies, many stories are either 
exaggerated or highly colored, due to the excited conditions under 
which the people saw things or heard reports. Sometimes a dozen 
persons see the same thing, yet each in relating it will tell a dif- 
ferent story, very much as it impressed or affected them at the time. 

We have throughout the Martinique and St. Vincent matter 
prefaced the facts with such stories as bore upon the subject. 
Hence the best will not appear within the pages of this chapter 
but will be found in preceding chapters. 

The following story by one of the crew of the Roraima is, I 
consider, excellent; it seems to be plain, concise and not overdrawn. 

NO. 1— STORY OF THE DESTRUCTION. 

C. C. Evans of Montreal and John G. Morris of Nev T York, who 
were carried to the Military Hospital at Fort de France, said 
the Roraima arrived at Martinique at 6. As eight bells was struck 
a frightful explosion was heard up the mountain. A cloud of fire, 
toppling and roaring, swept with lightning speed down the mount- 
ain side and over the town and bay. The Roraima was nearly sunk 
and caught fire at once. 

i( I never can forget the horrid, fiery, choking whirlwind which 
enveloped me, ' ? said Mr, Evans. "Mr, Morris and I rushed below, 

305 



206 Stories of Martinique Survivors. 

"We are not very badly burned, not so bad as most of them. When 
the fire came we were going to our posts (we are engineers) to 
weigh anchor and get out. When we came up we found the ship 
afire aft, and fought it forward until 3 o'clock, when the Suchet 
came to our rescue. We were then building a raft," 

STORY OF THE SHIP CARPENTER. 

"Ben" Benson, the carpenter of the Roraima, said: 

"I was on deck, amidships, when I heard an explosion. The 
captain ordered me to up anchor. I got to the windlass, but when 
the fire came I went into the forecastle and got my 'duds.' When 
I came out I talked with Captain Muggah, Mr. Scott, the first officer, 
and others. They had been on the bridge. 

"The captain was horribly burned. He had inhaled the flames 
and wanted to jump into the sea. I tried to make him take a life- 
preserver. The captain, who was undressed, jumped overboard 
and hung on to a line for a while. Then he disappeared." 

' ' Gus ' ' Linder, the quartermaster of the steamer, who was hor- 
ribly burned, confirmed this report. 

Francisco Angelo, who speaks poor English, vividly described 
the onrush of the fire. He said the captain was a very brave man, 
too brave to be burned to death. Angelo further asserted that the 
storm of fire lasted not more than five minutes. 

Joseph Beckels, a seaman fifty years of age and frightfully 
burned, said in weak tones that he was the last man to see the cap- 
tain. The captain was then trying to reach a floating mattress. 

Other men of the Roraima who were rescued were Salvador 
Aiello and Joseph Susino. 

The cable repair ship Grappler was lost with all on board, as 
was the French vessel Tamaya. 

The British steamer Roddam had anchored, but Captain Freed- 
man, although horribly burned, managed to keep on the bridge of 
his vessel. Everybody on the Roddam 's deck was killed instantly, 
but with the assistance of his third engineer and a fireman, who 
were wounded, the captain brought his vessel to St. Lucia. Many 
persons tried to reach the Roddam, . but in vain. The United 



Stories of Martinique Survivors. 207 

States vice consul at St. Pierre, Amedee Testart, reached the deck 
of the Roddam only to fall back into the sea dead. 

SEES A CYCLONE OF GAS. 

From the Italian ship Teresa Lovico several men were saved, 
but in a frightful state, except Jean Louis Prudent of St. Pierre. 
Although on deck and unprotected he was little burned. 

Prudent said there was first an awful noise of explosion and 
then, right away, a cyclone of smoke and fire, but such was the 
poisonous, choking nature of the smoke that it burned worse than 
the fire. When it struck people they fell dead. The cyclone of 
gas tore the masts out of ships, blew others up and sunk some of 
them. Soon afterward came a wave of fire bigger than the smoke 
cloud. 

"That cloud," said Prudent, "was bigger, it seemed, than the 
mountain. The fire burned the city everywhere at once. Near 
me I saw only dead men, but on the shore I saw men and women 
rushing back and forth amid the flames. Then came that choking 
smoke and they dropped as though vitally shot. 

' ' The explosion, smoke and fire all came and went in three min- 
utes, but the city burned for three hours. Then every house was 
finished and nothing alive was left. 

"Some men from the sinking ships got to the shore, but they 
were burned up there. 

"At no time were there any earthquakes, but big stones were 
rained down and fire fell like rain for a long time. ' ' 

SEES ST. PIERRE DESTROYED. 

The following is the story of one who was aboard the Roraima: 
"I saw St. Pierre destroyed. It was blotted out by one great 
flash of fire. Thirty thousand people were killed at once. Of eight- 
een vessels lying in the roads, only one, the British steamship 
Roddam, escaped, and she, I hear, lost more than half on board. It 
was a dying crew that took her out. 

' ' Our boat arrived at St. Pierre early Thursday morning. For 



208 Stories op Martinique Survivors. 

hours before we entered the roadstead we could see flames and 
smoke rising from Mont Pelee. No one on board had any idea of 
danger. Captain G. T. Muggah was on the bridge and all hands 
got on deck to see the show. The spectacle was magnificent. As 
Ave approaehed St. Pierre we could distinguish the rolling and 
leaping of the red flames that belched from the mountain in huge 
volumes and gushed high in the sky. Enormous clouds of black 
smoke hung over the voleano. 

FLAMES LEAPED HIGH IN AIR. 

"When we anchored at St. Pierre I noticed the cable steam- 
ship Grappler, the Boddam, three or four American steamers and 
a number of Italian and Norwegian barks. The flames were then 
spurting straight up in the air, now and then waving to one side 
or the other for a moment, and again leaping suddenly higher up. 
There was a constant muffled roar. It was like the biggest oil re- 
finery in the world burning up on the mountain top. 

"There was a tremendous explosion about 7:45 o'clock, soon 
after we got in. The mountain was blown to pieces. There was 
no warning. The side of the volcano was ripped out and there 
hurled straight toward us a solid wall of flame. It sounded like 
thousands of cannon. 

"First Officer Scott was saved by one of the negro laborers, 
who hauled him into the steerage and held the door shut against 
the flames. I saved my life by running to my stateroom and bury- 
ing myself in the bedding. The blast of fire from the volcano lasted 
only a few minutes. It shriveled and set fire to everything it 
touched. 

"Thousands of casks of rum were stored in St. Pierre and 
these were exploded by the terrific heat. The burning rum ran 
in streams down every street and out into the sea. The blazing 
rum set fire to the Roraima several times. 

"Before the volcano burst the landings of St. Pierre were 
crowded with people. After the explosion not one living being was 
seen on land. Only twenty-five of those on the Boraima out of 
sixty-eight were left after the first flash. The French cruiser 



Stories of Martinique Survivors. 209 

Sucliet came in and took us off at 2 p. m. She remained near by, 
helping all she could, until 5 p. m., then went to Fort de France 
with all the people she had rescued. At that time it looked as if 
the entire north end of the island was on fire. The shores were 
covered with mud and fragments of stone. All the vegetation was 
burned away. 

1 i When the Sucliet steamed out of the roadstead the water was 
covered with dead bodies and debris that had been swept burning 
from St. Pierre. As we left Mont Pelee was still blazing and roar- 
ing and the Roraima was still on fire. Out of the twenty-five taken 
off by the Sucliet three died on the way to Fort de France and sev- 
eral others died later. ' ' 

STORY OF AW OFFICER OF THE DANISH CRUISER VALKYRIEN. 

"We left St. Thomas the afternoon of May 9th. The next day, 
when seventy miles from Martinique, the falling volcanic ashes 
became troublesome. We approached the island and discovered St. 
Pierre to be burning. We made signals to the shore, but no replies 
were received. We then lay off for the night and witnessed a re- 
markable spectacle of fire and lightning. Ashes fell and detona- 
tions were heard. 

"In the morning we saw the French cruiser Sucliet and went 
nearer the shore. The ashes became dense as we approached and 
many dead bodies Avere floating on the sea. They were burned and 
swollen and floating in groups, in some cases, of ten. The hands 
were knitted and the limbs were cramped. Nearly all the bodies 
were those of white persons. As we approached St. Pierre we saw 
that the town was covered with ashes. We then joined the cruiser 
Sucliet and the cable repair ship Pouyer-Quertier, and together 
went toward Le Precheur. The rain of ashes was heavy and 
shrouded the Sucliet. Soon the atmosphere cleared up and we ran 
close to Le Precheur and then to Hameau des Sabines. 

"The boats from all three ships, were put overboard, and the 
rescue of people from the shore commenced at 11 o'clock in the 
morning. We were all covered with gray ashes, our eyes were 
weeping, and the heat was intolerable. Some of the negroes came 



210 Stories of Martinique Survivors. 

out to us in small boats , they were nearly naked, and some of them 
were laughing, while others were crying. 

"Some of them carried chairs with them, while others brought 
dogs and kittens as all their property. Their woolly hair was thick 
with ashes. Several big pans on board our ship were filled with 
cooked food and placed on deck; they were soon surrounded by a 
crowd of chattering natives. 

"The negroes were all saved by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 
except a few who refused to leave the land. At this hour the Suchet 
signaled 'the operation is over; thank you.' The Suchet then 
steamed away in the direction of Fort de France. But our boats 
had not yet all returned to the ship ; we were still waiting for the 
last one when there was a tremendous report from the crater of 
Mont Pelee, quickly followed by a second report. 

' ' These explosions caused great excitement on shore and our last 
boat returned to us bringing the remainder of the negroes, includ- 
ing those who had previously refused to leave. They had been 
frightened by the reports, and, jumping into the sea, had swam out 
to the boat. 

"We saved six hundred people from the north side, where, on 
account of the wind, there were not so many ashes. We take great 
pride in the fact that the Danish flag was the first foreign one at 
the scene of the disaster. We proceeded to Fort de France, and 
landed there the people we had rescued, as well as some provisions. 
At Fort de France a government official came on board the Valky- 
rian and thanked us all for what we had done. The Suchet returned 
to St. Pierre and secured the gold from the bank at Martinique. 
The coins had melted together. 

"Yesterday, May 14, the officers of our ship attended mass at 
Fort de France, and we left there to return here the same day. We 
passed St. Pierre at noon. The British steamer Roraima was still 
burning ; she appeared to be aground. Mont Pelee was still smok- 
ing, and the town of St. Pierre now resembles Pompeii. We saw 
a blackened wreck which we thought to be the cable repair ship 
Grappler. 

"It is estimated that the volcanic dust from Mont Pelee was 
thrown seven miles into the air. ' ' 



Stories of Martinique Survivors. 211 

A SAILOR'S PITIFUL STORY. 

"We experienced the greatest difficulty in getting into port," 
said James Taylor, a sailor on the Roraima. 

' * It soon became unbearably hot and I went on deck. All about 
was lying the dead and the dying. Little children were moaning for 
water. I did what I could for them. I obtained water, but when 
it was held to their swollen lips they were unable to swallow, be- 
cause of the ashes which clogged their throats. One little chap 
took water in this method and rinsed out the ashes, but even then 
could not swallow, so badly was his throat burned. He sank back 
unconscious and a few minutes later was dead 

' ' All aft the ship was afire, and from the land came draughts of 
terrible heat. 

"I was caught in the receding wave, which was of tidal velocity, 
and was carried out to sea. Then on the return of the wave I was 
washed against an upturned sloop, to which I clung. 

"A few minutes later I was joined by another man, whom I 
learned was Captain Muggah of the Eoraima. He was in dreadful 
agony and kept begging piteously to be put on board his ship. 

"Picking up some wreckage and a tool chest, I and five others 
who joined me succeeded in forming a rude raft, on which we 
placed the captain. Seeing an upturned boat, I asked one of the 
five to swim out to it and bring it over so that Captain Muggah 
might have an opportunity to live. The man succeeded in getting 
the boat righted, but instead of returning he picked up two of his 
countrymen and went away in the direction of Fort de France. 

"Seing the Roddam, which had arrived in port soon after we 
anchored, making for the Roraima, I said good-bye to Captain 
Muggah and swam to the Roddam. Before I could reach her she 
burst into flames and put out to sea. I finally reached the Roraima 
about half-past 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and later was taken off 
by the cruiser Suchet. ' ' 

Samuel Thomas, the gangway man whose life was saved by 
Taylor, describes a woman who was burned to death while she held 
her baby in her arms, protecting it with her own body from the 
fire that filled the air. 



CHAPTER XL 
LOOKING FOR THE END OF THE WOBLD. 

Religious Sects that See in the Martinique and St. Vincent Horrors the Begin- 
ning of the Total Destruction of the Earth — Bible Prophecies Quoted to 
Prove the Second Advent of the Messiah at Hand — Prof. Mangasarian 
Refutes the Idea That the World Is to Be Destroyed — The Race May- 
Become Extinct — Hopeful Signs of the Times. 

The news of the awful and ever-increasing tragedy of volcanic 
eruptions in the islands of the West Indies aroused the feelings of 
the whole world and became the subject of universal conversation. 
To the great mass of people the total destruction of St. Pierre ap- 
pealed only as an awful catastrophe. They did not stop to reason 
as to its causes. They knew that fellow beings were homeless, 
wounded, starving. They put their hands in their pockets and let 
their money voice their sympathies. This was better in many ways 
than speculating on the date of the end of the world. In fact, the 
human mind has through ages of contemplation of nature 's strange 
moods grown accustomed to the unexpected, and has come to regard 
these catastrophies which were once looked upon with different 
degrees of superstition with a quiet air of resignation. . il I don 't 
know, ' ' declares the agnostic, and that is a simple and easy way for 
the majority out of the labyrinth of doubt through which man has 
wandered since he came up out of a cave one morning to a sudden, 
if faint, appreciation of the beauty of the sunrise. 

The scientist takes a different stand. Volcanoes, earthquakes, 
tidal waves, all these awful phenomena which were once believed 
to be the result of an angry God sending punishment on His helpless 
subjects, have been classified by students in this field of knowledge 
and are understood by them to have natural causes which are as far 
removed from passion or prejudice as the sunlight that is at once 
the cause and destruction of life. The professors are quite sure they 
know all about these phenomena and discourse learnedly on them 
from the standpoint of their adopted theory until some thinker 

312 



Looking for the End of the World. 213 

comes along who has strength enough to force a new theory upon 
the world and then the colleges begin all over again. 

THE BIBLE ENOUGH FOE ADVENTISTS. 

Not so with the true believers in the literal prophecies of the Old 
and New Testaments. There is no doubt as to the meaning of these 
disturbances in the minds of these ardent followers of the mytholo- 
gies of the ancients and the poetical interpretation of them by the 
inspired Son of Galilee. They are certain the descriptions of the 
second coming of the Savior are intended for absolute fulfillment 
and look forward with a kind of cruel delight to the day when the 
heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll and the earth consumed 
with its own burning. Then the wicked shall all be destroyed while 
the righteous shall be led up into heaven out of reach of the flames. 
After a thousand years or so, when the earth has had time to cool 
off sufficiently for the purpose these few religious, if somewhat 
unsympathetic, souls will be sent back to inhabit it and live forever 
in peace and affluence. This is a beautiful dream— for the ones 
who escape— and has attracted a great many followers who are 
banded together under the name of Second Adventists, meaning 
those who believe in the second advent of Christ upon earth and 
the establishment of His temporal kingdom here when all the wicked 
shall have been destroyed. 

To the members of this peculiar sect, as well as to many more 
Christians, and others whose superstitions are quite as charitable, 
if pagan, the convulsions of nature which have such terrible effects 
have a meaning that is certainly sublime in its poetic conception 
however far it may be from the real facts of existence. To them 
the voice of the volcano is the voice of God. In its fearful utterance 
they hear the words of the ancient prophets and in the flame and 
smoke and rivers of hot lava they see a personified Deity angry 
with His subjects laying the hand of chastisement upon a sinful 
world. 

MARTINIQUE MEANS THE END. 

So did these believers interpret this last calamity. The destruc- 
tion of St. Pierre foreshadowed in their minds the greater destruc- 



214- Looking for the End of the World. 

tion of the world at no distant day. Some became so imbued with 
the importance of their own vision that they set the very day for 
this incomprehensible conflagration. It did not shake their faith at 
all to find that some other prophet of the same faith had seen a dif- 
ferent date in the stars and set a different time for the exhibition of 
these supreme fire-works. A few days more or less could make 
little difference to the spectators. There was no danger of any one 
missing the show when it came off. Everybody on earth would be 
there. And so the prophets went about declaring their belief in 
death and destruction as a sort of Fourth of July welcome to the 
second coining of the Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with 
grief and whose mantle of charity was broad enough to cover even 
the Magdalen of the street and the thief upon the cross. 

In all the cities of the country the Second Adventists held meet- 
ings for the purpose of warning the people of the coming of the end 
of the world. That they were themselves fully convinced needs no 
further proof than their awed manners and the intense atmosphere 
of their meetings. They spoke in hushed sentences and offered up 
devout prayers under the breath. In the volcanic upheavals in 
Martinique they saw a terrible portent, sent to mankind to warn 
them that the end was near. 

Beyond the few who pretend to special powers of divination the 
great mass of these sincere folk did not claim to know the exact date 
when this wholesale reward and punishment court should begin 
business. It might not be for a week, it might not be for a month, 
or a year, perhaps not for a decade or two, but they maintained the 
warning real and continued to offer supplications that the neigh- 
borhood, town or city in which they lived might be purified to make 
it ready for the end. 

The Adventists held meetings almost every evening following 
the catastrophe for some time. The Sunday following the week of 
the first excitement all the pulpits of this denomination, by precon- 
certed action, echoed with lurid descriptions of the horrors of Mar- 
tinique and anticipations of outbreaks in other islands which were 
only the beginning of the real convulsion that was to fulfill prophe- 
cy. The sermons of all ministers of this faith, as well as of many of 
other denominations were devoted to warning sinners of the awful 



Looking for the End of the World. 215 

day of reckoning in store for all those who failed to believe, and 
to the contemplation of what they and their congregations consider 
to be positive proof and corroboration of their teachings. 

PATHETIC SCENES IN THE CHURCHES. 

The writer visited several churches of the Second Adventists in 
Chicago and found the same scenes being enacted in each place. 
The sermons pointed to the fearful calamity in the West Indies and 
recounted greater horrors expected throughout the world in the near 
future. Men, women and children on their bended knees, with sobs 
and tears, offered prayers to the Almighty to help them so live that 
they would be among those chosen to join the throng of celestial 
souls at the second coming of the Messiah. Hymns that represented 
funeral dirges for the lost and destroyed were sung with all the 
solemnity of a real performance and one could easily imagine the 
last day as it appeared to the sincere if mistaken people. 

THE END NEAR AT HAND. 

Several of the Adventist preachers declared that the world would 
undoubtedly come to an end in the present generation. This gave 
rise to immense zeal and fervor among the members of their congre- 
gations and while some simply reiterated the statement others en- 
deavored to make more definite predictions and fix more certain 
dates. All of them, however, were united in the conviction that the 
Scriptural signs of the earth's end had begun in the West Indies and 
that the world is doomed. 

It was pointed by several of the leaders in this community that 
fully a month previous to the Martinique disaster, during an 
assembly in Chicago of many members of this creed from all parts 
of the country, several men had predicted that the signs of the end 
of the world as set forth in the Bible would begin during the present 
month. 

PROPHECIES THAT ARE FULFILLED. 

It is a curious fact well worth noting that after every great 
catastrophe caused by an unusual disturbance of the elements that 
prophecies and predictions that We made some time before seem. 



216 Looking for the End of the World. 

to have been fulfilled or partially so. These are not always the 
prophecies of religious persons or fanatics, but sometimes have the 
sanction of science. A noted instance of this is the prediction of 
Professor Joseph Rhodes Buchanan in 1890. Writing in the Arena 
he says: 

' ' Every seaboard city south of New England that is not more 
than fifty feet above the sea level of the Atlantic coast is destined to a 
destructive convulsion. Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, St. Augus- 
tine, Savannah and Charleston are doomed. Richmond, Baltimore, 
Washington, Philadelphia, Newark, Jersey City and New York will 
suffer in various degrees in proportion as they approximate the 
sea level. Brooklyn will suffer less, but the destruction at New 
York and Jersey City will be the grandest horror. 

"The convulsion will probably begin on the Pacific coast, and 
perhaps extend in the Pacific toward the Sandwich Islands. The 
shock will be terrible, with great loss of life, extending from British 
Columbia down along the coast of Mexico, but the conformation of 
the Pacific coast will make its grand tidal wave far less destructive 
than on the Atlantic shore. Nevertheless, it will be calamitous. 
Lower California will suffer severely along the coast. San Diego 
and Coronado will suffer severely, especially the latter. 

"It may seem rash to anticipate the limits of the destructive 
force of a foreseen earthquake, but there is no harm in testing the 
prophetic power of science in the complex relations of nature and 
man. 

' ' The destruction of cities which I anticipate will be twenty-four 
years ahead— it may be twenty-three. It will be sudden and brief— 
all within an hour and not far from noon. Starting from the Pacific 
coast, as already described, it will strike southward— a mighty tidal 
wave and earthquake shock that will develop in the Gulf of Mexico 
and Caribbean Sea. It will strike the western coast of Cuba and 
severely injure Havana. Our sister republic, Venezuela, bound to 
us in destiny, by the law of periodicity will be assailed by the en- 
croaching waves and terribly shaken by the earthquake. The de- 
struction of her chief city, Caraccas, will be greater than in 1812, 
when 12,000 were said to be destroyed. The coming shock will be 
near total destruction. 



Looking for the End of the World. 217 

"From South America back to the United States, all Central 
America and Mexico are severely shaken; Vera Cruz suffers with 
great severity, but the City of Mexico realizes only a severe shock. 
Tampico and Matamoras suffer severely ; Galveston is overwhelmed ; 
New Orleans is in a dangerous condition— the question arises be- 
tween total and partial destruction. I will only say it will be an 
awful calamity. If the tidal wave runs southward New Orleans may 
have only its rebound. The shock and flood pass up the Mississippi 
from 100 to 150 miles and strike Baton Rouge with destructive force. 

' ' As it travels along the gulf shore Mobile will probably suffer 
most severely and be more than half destroyed ; Pensacola somewhat 
less. Southern Florida is probably entirely submerged and lost; 
St. Augustine severely injured; Charleston will probably be half 
submerged, and Newbern suffer more severely; Port Eoyal will 
probably be wiped out ; Norfolk will suffer about as much as Pensa- 
cola; Petersburg and Richmond will suffer, but not disastrously; 
Washington will suffer in its low grounds, Baltimore and Annapolis 
much more severely on its water front, its spires will topple, and 
its large buildings be injured, but I do not think its grand city hall 
will be destroyed. Probably the injury will not affect more than 
one-fourth. But along the New Jersey coast the damage will be 
great. Atlantic City and Cape May may be destroyed, but Long 
Branch will be protected by its bluff from any severe calamity. 
The rising waters will affect Newark, and Jersey City will be the 
most unfortunate of large cities, everything below its heights being- 
overwhelmed. New York below the postomce and Trinity Church 
will be flooded and all its water margins will suffer." 

The late Martinique disaster is strangely in line with Professor 
l^iichanan 's prophecy. There are yet several years before the time 
set for the final fulfillment of the catastrophes he enumerates. How- 
ever, the Martinique and St. Vincent horrors are far beyond what 
his imagination suggested. 

NOT IN ACCORD WITH SCIENCE. 

The Adventists do not refer to Professor Buchanan in their 
present discussions. With them science and its researches has noth- 



218 Looking for the End of the World. 

ing to do. They base their knowledge of the world, its birth, 
growth and ultimate end, altogether on the text of the scriptures. 
They deny the conclusions of Darwin and Heckle and all the modern 
thinkers. To them the theory of evolution is blasphemy, pure and 
simple. The world was made, according to Genesis, in six days, 
and man, instead of being an upward growth, is the descendant of 
Adam and Eve, two wholly perfect beings. The garden of Eden 
is to these people not a myth, evolved from the speculations of 
slowly developing humanity, striving to form some conception of 
its origin, but an inspired account of a literal fact. 

It is wonderful how great is the belief of even the lay mem- 
bers of this sect. ' ' My dear little boy, ' ' said a mother, kissing her 
child, that sat wide-eyed and wondering in a West Side congrega- 
tion, "you will never know what horrors there are in this world 
and what great iniquity prevails here. Christ will be here before 
you will be able to know right from wrong." 

PREACHERS PREDICT ANNIHILATION. 

' ' Woe unto all evil doers, ' ' cried an aged man in the same con- 
gregation who declared he had been a believer since the move- 
ment first started in 1845 and had been expecting the end of the 
world to come ever since. "Slowly but surely the words of the 
Bible are coming true. The beginning of the end is at hand. There 
will be no escape for the sinner who does not turn his steps to right- 
eousness. He will perish." 

"Woe is unto all evil doers," said Christine Johnson, another 
member of the same congregation. ' ' The rolling noise of the vol- 
cano should be like an angel 's note of warning to the people of this 
city. Chicago is doomed, as are all other places. There will not 
be a stone left of the buildings here. Oh, it is horrible, but how in- 
spiring for the good to know that the end is near." 

The Rev. L. H. Christian, pastor of the Danish Seventh-Day 
Adventist Church, 269 West Erie street, Chicago, thrilled his hear- 
ers with predictions of the approaching end of all earthly things. 
The congregation gathered in small groups before and after the 
services and talked in low tones of the terrors that had begun to visit 




Copyright, 1902, by Press Publishing Co. (New York World), 

KAOUL SARTERET (Alias Peleno). 

The above is a photograph of the prisoner found in the dungeon at St. Pierre. H* 

was the only survivor of the disaster, and when found was semi-suffocated but 

able to tell the story of Mont Pelee's wrath and the burning of the Convent. 

(See page 48.) This photograph was taken after the disaster. 




Copyright, 1902, by Press Publishing Co. (New York World). 

VICTOR HUGO STREET, ST. PIERRE, IN RUINS. 

On another page in this book is a picture of this beautiful street as it looked before 

the eruption of Mont Pelee. The above is from a photograph taken after 

the ruin. It shows the awful wreck of buildings and the remains 

of bodies charred and partially decomposed. 




Copyright, 1902, by Press Publishing Co. (New York World). 

RUINS OF THE AMERICAN CONSULATE, ST. 



PIERRE. 



The above is a reproduction of a photograph taken after the destruction of St. Pierre. 

The remains of Mr. Prentis were identified and taken to Fort de France 

for burial. The remains of Mrs. Prentis were also found, but 

there is doubt as to the daughter's remains. 



Looking for the End op the World. 221 

the earth, and of the certainty of the approaching end. News- 
paper accounts of the Martinique disaster and the growing anxiety 
at St. Vincent and other places were read and re-read. The aged 
pastor explained to them the importance of the horrors from the 
standpoint of their creed, and many wept during his supplication 
to God to save the souls of all the faithful. 

' ' Yes, we are sure that what are regarded by most people as nat- 
ural phenomena of earthquakes in the West Indies are the forerun- 
ners and sure signs of the approaching end of the earth and the 
second coming of Christ, ' ' he declared at the close of the meeting. 
"The Bible tells us that mountains will level, islands will be sub- 
merged, the earth will tremble before the end. We believe that the 
beginning of this upheaval is now on. This earth will be smashed 
and completely returned to its chaotic state. 

A NEW EABTH FOR THE FAITHFUL. 

' ' All life will be extinct here and during the horrible transition 
from the present state to chaos death will reign. Christ will come 
accompanied by His celestial attendants, and will lead to heaven 
all who have loved and lived in righteousness for Him. After 
Christ's departure to heaven there will be 1,000 years of darkness 
and chaos, without any life upon this earth, during which time the 
faithful and the saved will be in heaven. After this 1,000 }^ears 
the earth will be brought back, not to its present form and condition, 
but to the state of Eden. We do not wish to work on people's emo- 
tions during these terrible catastrophes, but we want them to think 
and to realize the present proof of the scriptural teachings and of 
the sure end." 

In another church at 269 West Erie street an old man, fired by 
the words of the preacher and the contemplation of the ruin and 
death in St. Pierre, with arms outstretched, loudly appealed to the 
people of the church to prepare for the inevitable end and pray and 
work to be worthy of meeting their Savior on His second coming. 

"Let us ardently pray in this our church that more people may 
realize what is about to come," said he. "Let us arouse the city 
and set all the people herein aflame with a desire to have the priv- 



222 Looking for the End op the World. 

ilege of being one of Christ's followers when He goes back to 
heaven. ' ' 

When the minister offered prayer many cried. There were sev- 
eral converts and these were obligated not to use intoxicating liquor, 
tobacco or meat. They prayed and declared they were convinced 
that the end of the world is near. 

SIGNS OF FURTHER DISASTER. 

The Rev. G. Sclioll, pastor of the German Seventh Day Advent- 
ist Church, 548 West Chicago avenue, in speaking of the attitude 
of the Seventh Day Adventists toward the horrors in Martinique, 
said : 

"The scientists of Martinique, on the day before the horrible 
catastrophe, according to official and press reports, met and de- 
clared that all was w T ell and safe at St. Pierre. The next day the 
hand of God was upon the place and their lips are now silenced as 
to their explanation. We firmly believe the trembling of the earth, 
the volcanic eruptions and misfortunes which are steadily growing, 
are sure signs of the coming end and are just what the Bible sets 
forth with reference to the approaching end of the world and the 
second coming of Christ. The Galveston disaster was likewise con- 
sidered by us as a punishment meted out by God and as a warning. ' ' 

Throughout the city the Adventists made a house-to-house can- 
vass, asking people to read the Bible and come to their churches 
and homes in order better to realize what was coming and what 
should be done. 

EARTH MAY BECOME UNINHABITABLE. 

Believing that volcanic eruptions may render the earth uninhab- 
itable, but, in contrast with the Adventist view, that a new race 
may result, the Rev. M. M. Mangasarian, preacher of the Independ- 
ent Religious Societ} r , said: "There have been earthquakes in the 
past far more extensive and destructive than those in the Island of 
Martinique. But great physical cataclysms succeed only in trans- 
forming the configuration of the globe— they have no power in 
either annihilating or creating matter. The earth may be so mod- 



Looking for the End of the World. 223 

ified by these eruptions as to render human existence no longer pos- 
sible thereupon, but the new conditions will bring forth new beings. 
It is also possible that all life may go out on our planet as it has on 
the moon, but even then the earth, like the moon, will continue to 
exist. 

"Religious folk have always been inclined to observe in catas- 
trophes the signs of the end of the world. The Armenian massa- 
cres were said to foretell the coming of Christ. The capture of 
Constantinople by the Turks, the fall of Jerusalem, the black plague 
in Europe, the Lisbon earthquake and the French revolution have 
all been turned and twisted to fulfill prophecy. But the world is 
still with us in spite of these Jeremiahs. 

PREDICTION MADE MANY TIMES. 

''Everybody in Europe believed once that the world would bum 
out on the last clay of the year 999. The rich, frightened, turned 
over ail their wealth to the church, but the year 1000 dawned as nat- 
urally as any other year. The rich regretted their credulity, but it 
was too late. Jesus' description of a theatrical end of the world 
has influenced church people to exaggerate the importance of 
'omens and signs.' Why should the second advent of Christ be 
announced by the destruction of human lives and property when 
peace and good will was the song which heralded His first advent? 
Ignorance and fear are ever partial to severe and cruel forms of 
belief. 

"God is no more responsible for the earthquakes than He is for 
harvests— no more to be praised or to be blamed for the starvation 
of the stricken islanders or the plenty which dwells in our land than 
for the multiplication table. Earthquakes may come and earth- 
quakes may go, but the world goes on forever." 

Martinique's catastrophe supplied a theme for sermons in nu- 
merous Chicago pulpits for weeks following. The disaster was 
viewed from many standpoints, but to all who chose to discuss it 
before their congregations the thought was suggested that the uni- 
versal awakening of human pity and generosity following the news 
from St. Pierre was a hopeful sign of the times. At a few of the 



224 Looking foe the End of the World. 

churches contributions were taken for the relief of the survivors, but 
the information that further aid than that already given was un- 
necessary had its effect upon this feature of the services. 

PART OF NATURE'S LAW. 

The Rev. A. Lazenby of Unity Church, Chicago, spoke in part 
as follows: 

"No disasters seem to have a more appalling aspect or seem to 
make a more cruel sport of life than those produced by the earth- 
quake or the volcano or the inundation. These are generally looked 
upon as the cruelties of nature. And there are some men who have 
sought to apologize for God— to take the blame from Him and lay it 
upon another. God, they say, is in the orderly changes of nature, 
which are accomplished without violence, but not in the rending 
crushing, destroying forces of nature. But it is impossible to sep- 
arate between the orderly processes those which seem disorderly. 
They are all parts of the same great law. The causes which lead 
up to the one also lead up to the other. And we have to come to this, 
either no God at all, or one who can take the full responsibility of 
these things." 

GIVES PESSIMISM A BLOW. 

In his sermon at Lincoln Park Congregational Church the Rev. 
David Beaton said in part : 

' ' The overwhelming disaster of the West Indies, which has stag- 
gered the faith of some and hushed us all in awe before the might 
of elemental energies which seem to hold human life as stubble in 
the storm, has yet a silver lining to its darkness. The instant an- 
swer of the nations to the cry for help ; the generous stream of pity 
and wealth that has leaped out of the hearts of the people, is of 
much more significance than the lava streams that spread physical 
death. 

' l After all, the pessimist has got a body blow by this revelation 
of a spirit of mercy and generosity, confined to no race or creed, in 
the spontaneous opening of the fountains of pity for the sufferers 
in this awful calamity, If there, is anything tliat can reconcile us 



Looking for the End of the World. 225 

to the dark providence of our age it is the sunburst of divine feeling 
which reveals the spirit of a universal brotherhood. It is surely no 
unworthy boast that America seems to hear most keenly and respond 
most generously to that cry. Is there not some moral connection 
between this national generosity of the American people and the 
commercial conquests which are arresting the attention of the Eu- 
ropean nations V 

MAN'S CONFLICT WITH NATURE. 

At South Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church Dr. Henry 
Irving Rasmus took for his theme, "The Saving of a Remnant." 
After explaining the application of the text in the history of the 
Hebrews, Dr. Rasmus said : 

"Consider these words in the light of the disaster which so re- 
cently thrilled and horrified the world. History is but one luminous 
commentary upon the fact that man is in one continuous conflict 
with the forces of nature. Our hearts pulsate with quickened beats 
as we think of the awful catastrophies of past centuries, but now, 
at the threshold of the twentieth century, occurs a disaster as terri- 
ble as any and at which the world stands weeping. 

' ' In the presence of this terrible calamity there are some lessons 
to learn. What more magnanimous spectacle than the immediate 
relief voted by the great American Republic ? No sooner has the 
frightful news startled the world than, by suggestion of our Pres- 
ident, Congress appropriates a splendid sum for prompt succor. 
This is the characteristic of the American heart— instant sympa- 
thetic response to the suffering. Long live the Union to prove 
itself the good Samaritan among the nations of the earth! 

"Let no one haste to say that this was a sudden visitation of 
divine judgment; rather it was an accident of nature. It will 
stand an illustration of the fact that so long as men persist in get- 
ting in the way of natural forces they must— sad as it is— abide the 
result. 

"Men may hasten to declare that such disasters foretoken the 
final end of the world. With that event no one needs concern him- 
self. The end of the world will come, sooner or later, to every man, 



226 Looking foe the End op the World. 

and there will be written on the wall in his death chamber the 
'Mene, Mene, Tekel Peres' of reddening doom or there will open 
to him the gateway to eternal life." 

HOPEFUL SIGN OF THE TIMES. 

Dr. Joseph K. Mason of St. Paul 's Universalist Church said in 
part : 

"The universal sympathy awakened by this disaster is one of 
the most hopeful indications of our age, but what a pity it is that 
such humanity awaits so often the unusual occurrence like a vol- 
canic eruption or earthquake to call it forth. There are the poor 
always with us, who would cease to be poor if men exhibited the 
same philanthropy toward them which they so nobly show the suf- 
ferers in some unusual visitation. Nevertheless, whatever serves to 
awaken the spirit of compassion is not in vain, not all a curse, 
though it may seem so to the unfortunate sufferers who claim our 
sympathy and prompt generosity." 

Dr. Mason spoke also of the fact that there are not a few who 
look upon such events as evidences of the divine wrath for human 
sinfulness. 

"Such views, however, are not in harmony with our present 
knowledge," he said. "On the other hand, the calamity of the 
few is really the salvation of the many. We know to-day that vol- 
canoes are nature's safety valves, and if it were not for them the 
earth itself would be destroyed. Instead of wrath they indicate be- 
nevolence and loving care." 

NATIONS ACT AS SAMARITANS. 

The Rev. Frederick E. Hopkins spoke in part as follows at the 
Pilgrim Congregational Church in the evening: 

"Men who ridicule the destruction of Sodom and the story 01 
the flood, because the Bible reports such disasters, in this calamity 
have something to set them thinking, and it ought to lead them to 
revise their conclusions. Tt is also to be hoped that the responsi- 
bility for the dreadful loss of life will be placed not upon God but 



Looking foe the End of the World. 227 

upon the arbitrary Governor who, when even animals guided by 
instinct, were seeking a place of safety, compelled the people to 
remain. 

"But, behold .he kindness of the world. Within twenty-four 
hours of the horror the President of the United States, grandly ig- 
noring all kinds of red tape, opens our treasury and to-day the re- 
lief ship is nearing the ill-fated island. The parable of the Good 
Samaritan is being enacted this week by all the great nations and 
the language of all is love. It proves how fully the spirit of Jesus 
rules the world." 

Dr. Camden M. Cobern, of St. James' Methodist Church, drew 
a comparison between the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah 
and the disaster at St. Pierre. Pie said in part : 

"Some may call one supernatural and the other a natural over- 
throw, but God is the real actor in either case. The natural is as 
divine as the supernatural. This raises the startling question, ' Can 
God be just, much less merciful, and cut down a city full of people 
like that!' God is just and merciful, but we cannot have the larger 
knowledge as to what is best, and perhaps do not have His thought 
of the meaning of life, suffering and death. It is a ghastly re- 
proach upon Christian civilization that so many people seem to 
believe that afflictions are a sign of God's wrath for individual sin. 
On the contrary, Jesus taught that the Man of Sorrows was the king 
of men and most in favor with God. ' ' 

The Eev. Mattison Wilbur Chase, pastor of Centenary Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, preached upon "Lessons from the Martin- 
ique Catastrophe." He said in part: 

"The desire of the age as expressed in all departments of en- 
deavor is for stability, permanence, constancy. But let man do his 
best and still his structures are only temporary. W 7 ere we surviv- 
ing witnesses of the awful spectacle the other day, when Pelee 
opened up its fiery depths and swept with its fury 40,000 of our 
fellows into premature graves we might find it easier to believe the 
revelation that one day 'the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.' 'All things 
seen are temporal. ' What is true of the material world is also true 
of the intellectual world. The science of any age consists largely 



228 Looking foe the End of the Wobld. 

of those hypotheses which have not yet been disproved. The 
theory of to-day is continually giving place to the discovery of to- 
morrow. Upon what, then, shall we build our hope? The apostle 
gives the only satisfactory answer, 'The foundation of God stand- 
eth sure.' " 

EVEN VOLCANOES TOO SMALL FOR THE BLIND TO SEE. 

There still exists among many the tendency to ascribe to the 
supernatural those things that are so awful or unusual in their char- 
acter that the human mind is not often called upon to contemplate 
them. That which is as plainly a manifestation of nature's laws as 
is the falling of an apple, is transformed by these conjurers into 
something strange and wonderful, usually indicative of the wrath 
of God at the act of some fly-speck human being. The rational, the 
reasonable explanation is ignored for the purpose of solving the 
problem in the most difficult way and giving to the event a weird 
and uncanny character that does not belong to it. 

Such persons are trying to show that the volcanic eruptions that 
destroyed St. Pierre and other towns in Martinique were not the 
acts of nature, but the acts of an angry God, bent upon destroying 
an immoral people. Julius G. Tucker, former American consul 
at Martinique, says it is the old story of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
And Father Servais, a Montreal priest, who resided many years 
in Martinique, joins with him in the declaration that the destruc- 
tion of St. Pierre was an act of divine retribution made necessary 
in the sight of God by the wickedness of the people. 

Those whose faculties are not blinded by an unconscious de- 
sire to make God appear to be a monster more terrible than ever 
lived on earth in prehistoric times will not agree with this explana- 
tion. Eational men and women are more likely to believe that St. 
Pierre was destroyed because an active volcano happened to be 
in the vicinity. This volcano, like other volcanoes, has a habit of 
bombarding the earth with fire and lava at uncertain intervals. 
It does so in the performance of a natural function. When the 
great molten interior of the earth generates sufficient steam to blow 
the head off the mountain, the head comes off— and likewise the 



Looking for the End of the World. 229 

heads of any unfortunate human beings or other animals that hap- 
pen to be in the vicinity. It is not of record that a volcano has ever 
been a respecter of persons. No scientist has ever discovered that a 
volcano refrained from erupting because there happened to be a 
campmeeting in session at its base. Nor is there any reason to sup- 
pose that the volcano that destroyed St. Pierre would have varied 
its performance a particle if it had been surrounded with all the 
godly of earth instead of with a people whose morals had been 
made bad by ignorance and by a climate that God Himself gave to 
the island. 

But the best assurance we have that our friend and others of his 
kind are wrong, is our belief that God is just and that He is not a 
monster. A just God could not have killed these 30,000 residents of 
Martinique as punishment for their immorality, because He does 
not treat the other immoral people of the world in that way. If 
sudden and violent death were the divine penalty for immorality, 
justice would require that it be inflicted on all— and we know that 
it is not. 



CHAPTER XII. 
LIGHT ON MYSTERY. 

Home of the Volcano— Regions to Be Avoided— Asama's Vast Crater— Vol- 
canoes of Iceland, South America, Central America, Alaska — Craters in 
the United States— Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier. 

Mont Pelee, Krakatoa, Bandaisan, Asama, Mauna Loa, Vesu- 
vius ! Why not say these titles are inscriptions on gigantic human 
graves, rather than names of vent holes of smothering Mother 
Earth? 

Each name, after the geologists and quakeologists have all had 
their slay, but stands for the blotting out of vast aggregations of 
humans— people who slept at night and in the dawn died under a 
rain of fire, ash and boiling mud. 

Volcanoes are nature's steam boilers, as erratic and irresponsi- 
ble under extraordinary high pressure as any tubular affair of 
man's inclosed in the sheathing of a modern locomotive. 

The stationary boiler of the laundry that went skyward, taking 
seven human lives with it; the massive affair of the Lake Shore 
Road, which some years ago went sailing through the fresh air of 
a Sunday morning, carrying with it the lives of engineer and fire- 
man, were but miniature Mont Pelees, but mock Krakatoas. 

Yet men are still so far removed from understanding that warm, 
pulsating nature above and in which they live, that they gasp 
when a mountain head blows up and shudder when the sky rains 
bloody ash. Ignorantly, hopefully they build granary and vine- 
yard under the shadow of craters and close to the vent holes of 
earth's steam chests and laugh when science cries "Beware!" 

The world has had warning enough of eruptions and quakes to 
know, if it would heed, that whatever the actual inner condition 
of the earth be, eruptions and quakes are as certain to come as the 
sun after a storm. Within a radius of 500 miles of the very Mont 
Pelee region, now so afflicted, science records the following seismic 
events : 

230 



Light on Mystery. 231 

Six eruptions in the sixteenth century. 
Eleven in the seventeenth century. 
Seventeen in the eighteenth century. 
Seventeen in the nineteenth century. 

Has there been any reason to suppose that staid, sober, dark- 
hued Pelee would not sooner or later follow the example of her sis- 
ters of the volcanic belt that encircles the Caribbean and has one 
arm ending at Fuego and another in the arctic regions? Shall it 
longer be doubted that Atlantis sunk in such a cataclysm to make 
way for the now America? 

Masaya vomited forth in 1522, Pacaya in 1565, Fuego five times 
between 1581 and 1623, Irazu in 1623, Momotombo in 1764, Quema- 
do in 1785, San Miguel in 1844, Masaya in 1858, Ilopango in 1880, 
Ometepe in 1883. Bandaisan was silent for centuries, and Kra- 
katoa. Yet all these have unquestioned intimate connection with 
the vents, the boiling mass of Pelee, the unfortunate. 

Ciudad Vieja was engulfed by an earthquake in 1541, San Sal- 
vador in 1575, Antigua Guatemala in 1586, eastern Salvador in 1765, 
Cojuepeque in 1857, Amatitlan in 1862, Patzitsia in 1874— why nqt 
St. Pierre in 1902? 

REGIONS TO BE AVOIDED. 

A volcano and a volcanic region are good things to let alone— 
to keep free from permanent settlement. Zorion estimates (1891) 
that since earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were first recorded 
by man more than 13,000,000 people have lost their lives through 
them. The property damage inflicted at the same time can never 
be estimated. It must extend into the billions of dollars. 

Take a map of the Barbadoes, Bermudas, the West Indies, Cen- 
tral America, and ask a geologist of note or a traveler of judgment 
where in the region there is freedom from volcanic action and 
quakes. He will rub his nose and ask for a larger map, and then, 
beginning at Terre del Fuego far to the south, make dots all the 
way north to Salvador, east to the Indies and west to the Pacific, 
and then north again through the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas to 
the Selkirks, and then on to the arctic regions, and he will say : 



232 Light on Mysteky. 

"All I have dotted came from the depths by volcanic action or 
quakes, and that it should return by the same action is not only 
not impossible but probable. If the earth is cooling within, the 
process so far has been so slow that cessation from quakes and 
eruptions must be yet a million years away. 

"I confidently expect that the major part of the con- 
tinents of the world, these United States, Asia, Europe, will be de- 
structively altered over and over again before the earth reaches 
the last stage of solidity prior to again becoming gaseous." 

FRIGHTFUL RECORD CITED. 

If he is inclined to be loquacious he will hold up his fingers and 
begin to count and name : 

"In Salvador alone, not far from Pelee, there are Tacuba, 
Apaneca, Santa Ana, Izalco, San Salvador, San Jacinto, Cojute- 
peque, San Vicente, Tecapa, Usulutan, Chinameca, San Miguel, 
Conchagua, Chingo, Gussapa, Matarra, Cacaguatique, Gotera, So- 
ciedad, all living volcanoes, all earth vents, of sufficient power when 
^roused to make living mortals think the jaws of hell have opened 
for their reception. They are the warm, throbbing footstool of 
Mexico and the United States. In the United States, Hood is still 
smoking, and far to the north St. Augustine, which must have ex- 
ploded ages ago, will certainly erupt in the years to come. Mar- 
tinique has had its face changed, perhaps almost obliterated. Very 
well, why should not continents be thus changed? "What did Ban- 
daisan do?" 

On July 15, 1888, Bandaisan, having slept for ages, hurled a 
cloud of flame and smoke to the Japanese sky. Then her head blew 
off, and sent, according to Professor Milne, sixteen hundred million 
cubic yards of rock and earth into the valley beneath. 

Cut this lava into chunks each the size of an ordinary street car 
and the train furnished would have been long enough to have en- 
circled the earth five times— 125,000 miles. 

As Mr. Moffett put it, if these fragments had been blown into 
great shells as large as the largest ship afloat, with a displacement 
of 15,000 tons each, they would, if floated end to end, have bridged 
the Pacific from San Francisco to Yokohama. 



Light on Mystery. 233 

■ 

MEET AN AWFUL DISASTER. 

When Bandaisan vented her wrath on the earth a river of ag- 
glomerate poured down the valley at the rate of forty-eight miles 
an hour, and in twenty minutes had spread itself to a depth of 100 
feet over a region from twelve to fifteen miles long and from five 
to seven miles wide. If New York City had been in that valley, or 
Chicago, 90 per cent of the population would never have had time 
to escape. As it was only 401 persons lost their lives, because there 
were only. 401 present when Bandaisan started her fun. 

Bandaisan changed a Japanese landscape of green into one of 
brown, burying houses and fields. Where no lake had been one 
was created by the damming of a mountain stream. This lake 
grew so rapidly that the peasants in its vicinity abandoned farming 
and took to fishing. The bowlders which were hurled from the 
volcano weighed four and five tons each, and had been hurled eight 
and ten miles from the crater. Professor Milne declares they fell 
with the velocity of a falling star. 

THROWS LIGHT ON MYSTERY. 

The best explanation or answer to the question ever given was 
prepared by Professor John Milne. He said: 

' ' The eruptions that build up mountains are periodical wellings 
over of molten lava, comparatively harmless. The eruptions ac- 
companied with violent explosions occur irregularly and bring 
widespread destruction. It is easy to see in the building-up process 
how each streaming over of lava makes a mountain grow; each 
fresh outgush hardens as it pours, and forms a fresh shell of lava 
for other shells to form on. 

" And, finally, when a certain height is reached— one, two, three 
miles— we may suppose the impelling force beneath no longer 
equal to the task of lifting this great column and the crater crusts 
ever at the top ; and so generations pass, and men, with their short 
lives and shorter memories, say that the volcano is dead. 

"But the fires are there at the core, so much latent energy ready 
to be stirred ; and if something stirs them it is like rousing a th.ui> 



234 Light on Mystery. 

derbolt. The fact that the natural vent above is blocked with the 
coolings of centuries only makes the discharge the more terrible 
when it comes, just as hard-rammed bullets make powder more 
effective. 

' ' The cause that rouses the volcano 's latent energy is the same 
that makes a boiler burst— the sudden and excessive generation of 
steam when the hot part of the volcano comes in contact with water. 
This contact may be due to various causes, as, for instance, the re- 
adjustment of strata or materials beneath, so that a lake or water 
course is turned into the crater. It may even be due to an irruption 
of the sea, as at Krakatoa in 1883." 

LAVA DOES NOT ALWAYS COME. 

The professor was asked : 

"Does molten lava never come out in one of these violent ex- 
plosions?" 

"Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. It did in 1783, when 
Asama, a Japanese volcano, blew its head off, and the lava track 
may still be seen along the face of the mountain like a huge black 
serpent. But in cases like that the lava does not well out; it is 
driven out by the steam, just as rocks are driven out. 

"When no lava comes out the mud river gets the liquid to make 
it flow partly from steam and partly from water it absorbs from 
springs and streams in its course. The mud river from Asama, 
for instance, lapped up two ordinary rivers as it went, so that no 
sign of them appeared thereafter. 

"There are volcanoes in the world at present, in Europe, in>the 
United States, in England, that will one day or another blow their 
heads off, although there is no telling when they will do it. Eng- 
land has at least a dozen basal wrecks of volcanoes, mostly in the 
western Highlands, regarded as extinct, but Bandaisan has shown 
us what 'extinct' volcanoes will do. An 'extinct' volcano is very 
much like an old rusty gun— it may be loaded." 

Landgrelle, an authority, regards the explosion of Asama, 
Japan, in 1783, as one of the most frightful eruptions in the history 
of volcanoes. Asama rises to a height of over 8,000 feet, and in 



Light on Mystery. 235 

its great paroxysm it sent down a river of mud from five to ten 
miles broad that overwhelmed forty-two villages. 

In some places the mud was so hot it did not stop boiling for 
twenty-four days. In the Tonezawa Kiver immense masses of lava 
remained red hot even in the river itself. In Kurogano a stone 120 
by 264 feet, one among many, fell in a river and formed an island. 
Two rivers were sucked up into the mud torrent and their places 
taken by diy land, and the noise of the explosion was like a thou- 
sand thunders. The lakes were poisoned and fish sickened, the 
rivers were full of dead dogs, deer and monkeys, with hair singed 
from their bodies. 

ASAMA'S VAST CRATER. 

The crater of Asama as it stands to-day measures a mile a#d a 
quarter in circumference and never ceases to belch forth pungent, 
strangling odors of hydrochloric acid and sulphurous anhyride, 
to breathe which is to die. The depth of the crater as now consti- 
tuted cannot be determined. It is supposed to be 8,000 feet to the 
bottom of its cup. 

ECLIPSES POMPEII DISASTER. 

The eruption of Vesuvius, by which Pompeii was destroyed, 
was a comparatively petty affair as compared with the perform- 
ances of Bandaisan, Krakatoa and Mauna Loa. Mont Pelee and 
Soufriere, like the Krakatoa of 1883, have been obscure earth vents, 
but Pelee has taken more lives than Vesuvius and wrought more 
destruction. Its height is about a mile. It has thirteen children— 
Piton Pierreux, Piton, Pain-a-sucre, and so on. Thirty rivers are 
born on its slopes. The last great belch from it was in 1851. Sou- 
friere of St. Vincent exploded in 1812 with much loss of life. It 
then formed a crater three miles in circumference and 500 feet 
deep. It is this crater that is belching forth destruction to-day. 

It is probable after Pelee and Soufriere have worked their tem- 
porary end that it will be discovered their eruptions are but pre- 
ludes to a greater explosion to come from some vent on some other 
part of the earth's surface. It would surprise no one familiar with 



236 Light on Mystery. 

the vagaries of volcanoes to have a year hence, or maybe five or ten 
years distant, an explosion in Salvador so mnch greater than the 
two of to-day as to obscure their performances. Science will then 
say that Pelee and Soufriere but gave preliminary warning of a 
greater travail of Mother Earth. 

Mont Epomeo of Ischia is one of the volcanoes of the world clas- 
sified as extinct that was dormant 1,700 years and then exploded 
in 1302. Cosequina of Nicaragua cast forth such clouds of ashes 
in 1835 that utter darkness prevailed thirty-five miles distant and 
eight miles from the crater the ground was covered to a depth of 
ten feet. Some of the ashes fell at Kingston, Jamaica, 700 miles 
away. 

Cotopaxi hurled a 200-ton bowlder nine miles one summer's day. 
Manna Loa belched forth a solid fountain of lava 1,000 feet wide 
and 900 feet high. The largest volcano in the western world is 
Popocatapetl, 19,643 feet high. Rainier, 15,000 feet high, is the 
largest volcano in the United States. It is "supposed" to be ex- 
tinct. 

THE STUDY OF VOLCANOES. 

Scientists have dared death in its most appalling forms in order 
to study volcanoes actually at work, in the hope of snatching from 
them the secret of their being. Thus in the year 1767 Sir William 
Hamilton dared the terrors of Vesuvius in one of its most violent 
eruptions in order to question it in scientific fashion of its phenom- 
ena and their cause. 

The volcano had been throwing out dust, scoria and gigantic 
* ' bombs ' ' for months. It was hazardous in the extreme even to ap- 
proach it. Yet so greatly did the scientific eagerness to know dom- 
inate Sir William's mind that he boldly went up the mountain to 
the highest point attainable. Fortunately for science he went on 
the day when the great outburst of lava occurred, and at fearful 
risk to himself he saw what happened. 

SCIENTIST'S DEED OP DARING. 

a Ona sudden, about noon, ' ' says Sir William, ' ' I heard a vio- 
lent noise within the mountain, and at a spot about a quarter of a 



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Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

RUINS OF THE CATHEDRAL OE ST. PIERRE. 
The above picture shows all that is left of the once beautiful Cathedral at St. 
Pierre. It will be remembered that this is the church where 3,000 
people fled for safety but were destroyed. 



Light on Mysteey. 239 

mile off the place where I stood the mountain split ; and with much 
noise from this new mouth a fountain of liquid fire shot up many 
feet high, and then, like a. torrent, rolled on directly toward us. 
The earth shook at the same time that a volley of pumice stones 
fell thick upon us. In an instant clouds of black smoke and ashes 
caused almost total darkness; the explosions from the top of the 
mountain were much louder than any thunder I ever heard, and 
the smell of the sulphur was offensive. My guide, alarmed, took to 
his heels, and I must confess that I was not at my ease. I fol- 
lowed close, and we ran nearly three miles without stopping. As 
the earth continued to shake under our feet I was apprehensive of 
the opening of a fresh mouth, which might cut off our retreat. I 
also feared that the violent explosions might detach some of the 
rocks off the mountain of Somma, under which we were obliged 
to pass ; besides the pumice stones, falling upon us like hail, were 
of such a size as to cause disagreeable sensations." 

STUDY OF CAUSES. 

Besides such risky study— including the late Professor Pal- 
mieri's daring life residence near the lip of the crater— science has 
prosecuted other and laborious researches into the causes of vol- 
canic action. Careful calculations have been made to determine 
where the heat might come from, until we now know almost exact- 
ly how much rock must be pulverized by pressure in order to pro- 
duce the temperatures of 2,000° to 3,000° Fahrenheit, which have 
been found in the craters. 

Yet we do not know to-day with any sort of certainty or satis- 
faction what it is that causes volcanic action. There are many 
scientific theories, but each of them has been challenged by scien- 
tific criticism which apparently it cannot endure. 

For ages it has been recognized as a giant chimney, built by 
the actions of subterranean fires. Likewise these chimneys have 
been associated always with contiguous salt water. As to the 
conditions which control these chimneys giving vent to the fires 
of an under world, speculation has been rife for a thousand years. 
In general, superheated steam under the earth's crust is regarded 



240 Light on Mysteey. 

as the active agent in a volcanic eruption. With most volcanoes, 
active or extinct, standing in proximity to sea water, the connec- 
tion of steam with the phenomenon has been easy. Accounting 
for the subterranean fires has been the task. 

HOME OF THE VOLCANO. 

Taking the map of the world, one sees the margins of the Pacific 
as well as its mighty bed to be the home of the volcano. All down 
the eastern coast of Asia and extending out into the tropical 
islands of the south Pacific is a continuous chain of volcanoes, 
active within recent times; across the north Pacific, from Alaska 
to Kamschatka, are the craters in the Aleutian Islands, forming 
almost a bridge over the Pacific, and from Alaska down the western 
coast of North and South American continents is a string of the 
mightiest volcanoes in existence. Iceland is a seething caldron 
under its eternal snows, and in a hundred places where some great, 
jagged cone of a volcano rises, seemingly dead and lifeless, only a 
firebrand in the hand of nature may be needed to awaken it to a 
fury like that of which its vast lava beds, pinnacles, and craters are 
so eloquent. 

In general, those volcanoes which have had longest periods of 
rest between eruptions have been most violent, and as a rule those 
cones sending out ashes are of the worst type. The theory of a 
long quiescent volcano breaking out with such renewed force is that 
the vent in the crater becomes choked by cooling rock until, when 
some sudden burst of steam forces an eruption, the whole top of 
the cone may be blown away. 

VOLCANOES OF ICELAND. 

As to the extent of an eruption of a great volcano, Skaptan 
Jokul, in Iceland, in 1783 made one of the world's records. 

The eruption began on June 11 of that year, having been pre- 
ceded by violent earthquakes. A torrent of lava welled up into 
the crater, overflowed it, and ran down the sides of the cone into 
the channel of the Eiver Skapta, completely drying it up. The 



Light on Mystery. 241 

river had occupied a rocky gorge, from 400 to 600 feet deep and 
averaging 200 feet wide. This gorge was filled, a deep lake was 
filled, and the rock, still at white heat, flowed on into subterranean 
caverns. Tremendous explosions followed, throwing bowlders to 
enormous heights. A week after the first eruption another stream 
of lava followed the first, debouched over a precipice into the chan- 
nel of another river, and finally, at the end of two years, the lava 
had spread over the plains below in great lakes twelve to fifteen 
miles wide and a hundred feet deep. Twenty villages were de- 
stroyed by fire, and out of 50,000 inhabitants nearly 9,000 perished, 
either from fire or from noxious vapors. The Skapta River branch 
of this lava stream was fifty miles long and in places twelve to fif- 
teen miles wide ; the other stream was forty miles long, seven miles 
broad, and the range of depth in each stream was from 100 to 600 
feet. Professor BischofT has called this, in quantity, the greatest 
eruption of the world, the lava, piled, having been estimated as of 
greater volume than is Mont Blanc. 

MOUNT HECLA. 

Mount Hecla stands isolated and snow clad about twenty miles 
from the southwest coast of Iceland. Its principal crater when 
visited by Sir George MacKenzie was about one hundred feet deep, 
and contained a large quantity of snow in the bottom. There are 
many secondary craters near the summit. The sides of the vol- 
cano are broken by numerous deep ravines, forming channels for 
mountain torrents produced by the melting of the snow. The view 
from the summit is very desolate and wild. Fantastic groups of 
hills, craters and lava, leading the eye to distant, snow-covered 
jokuls ; the mist rising from a waterfall ; lakes shut in bare, bleak 
mountains ; an awful and profound slumber, lowering clouds ; 
marks all around of the most destructive of the elements, give to 
the region a character of desolation scarcely to be paralleled. No 
wonder the Icelandic sagas are grim and their gods terrible ! The 
old civilization of Iceland has preserved the record of the erup- 
tions of Hecla since the tenth century. Of these there have been 
forty-three, always very violent and generally continuing for a 



242 Light ox Mystery. 

considerable time. One of the most tremendous occurred in 1783, 
when the immense quantity of lava and ashes ejected laid waste a 
large extent of country. The internal fire remained as if exhausted 
and was quiescent till September, 1845, when with terrific energy 
it again burst forth and continued active for more than a year. It 
poured forth a torrent of lava which two miles from the crater was 
a mile wide and forty or fifty feet deep, and the fine dust from this 
eruption fell on the Orkneys, four hundred miles away. 

EFFECT ON ICELAND. 

Iceland, as one of the hotbeds of volcanic energy, presents in 
marked manner the ills that come upon a district which suffers 
from volcanic eruptions. Hecla has been known to be active for a 
period of six years at a time. While throwing out its vapors, 
fumes, and solids, the people of the island contiguous to the vol- 
cano have verged upon starvation. Their principal food supply 
comes from their fisheries and from their cattle. As to the fishing, 
it is practically destroyed because of the vast amount of hot lava 
that is discharged into the sea and because of the activity of boiling 
springs which pour hot water into the neighboring ocean. 

As for the cattle, they suffer in a most peculiar manner. The 
ashes and pumice stone are thrown to great heights and settle in 
great clouds upon the pastures. Aside from this making the grass 
tasteless, the cattle, in trying to eat in pasture, take the ashes and 
fine pumice into their mouths. This cuts the enamel from their 
teeth, finally leaving the brutes in such misery that they cannot 
eat the grass that is there for their sustenance, and they die of 
slow starvation. On many occasions Denmark has been called upon 
to aid the Icelanders in such emergencies. 

DANGEES AT HOME. 

Though in the geologic minute or second during which white 
men have lived in the United States there have been no great vol- 
canic catastrophes such as have overwhelmed districts of our neigh- 
bor, Mexico, there are volcanoes in the United States. Though 
they are supposed to be extinct, history has proved that the term 



Light on Mysteky. 243 

"extinct" is only relative; that cones which for ages have seemed 
dead suddenly have broken out with all the furies of the under 
world. Etna, for instance, had been classed as active in the Odys- 
sey, while for a thousand years before 79 A. D. Vesuvius had been 
regarded as extinct. In that year it burst forth in a manner to 
force the story of it to the end of history. In the years in which 
Vesuvius was quiet the volcanoes on the Island of Ischia, forming- 
one of the arms of the Bay of Naples, and known to have belonged 
to the Vesuvian chain, were active ; after the stupendous outbreak 
of Vesuvius in 79, however, these volcanoes slumbered for 1,700 
years. To all appearances they were extinct, when, after all these 
centuries, they became active again. 

With reference to these volcanoes and this volcanic district, 
other vents were open in this 1,700 years, and earthquakes were of 
frequent occurrence. This would tend to show that the volcanic 
conditions were still in existence and more or less potent. To-day, 
speaking of extinct volcanoes, those of the Andes in South Amer- 
ica seem to be most certainly of this class. But no one in the scien- 
tific world to-day has the temerity to say just where is the volcanic 
cone that is dead past all awakening. 

CRATEE3 IN UNITED STATES. 

Regarding the volcanoes of the United States proper, Mount 
Shasta is one of the most interesting of them. It has an altitude 
of 14,350 feet, towering more than a mile above its nearest neighbor. 
Four thousand feet of its peak are above timber line, covered with 
glaciers, while the mountain's base is seventeen miles in diameter. 
Shasta is almost continually showing slight evidences of its in- 
ternal fires. 

Another of the famous cones is that of Mount Hood, standing 
11,225 feet, snow-capped, and regarded as extinct as a volcano. 
Other peaks are Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, 
Mount Adams, Mount Jefferson, Three Sisters, Mounts Mazama, 
Scott, Union, Pitt, Lossen Peak, Spanish Peaks, and Mount Taylor. 

As to the volcanic records of the great West, they may be read 
in the great chains of mountains that stretch from Alaska, 10,000 



244 Light on Mysteby. 

miles to Terra del Fuego. In the giant geysers and hot springs of 
the Yellowstone Park are evidences of existing fires in the United 
States, while as to the extent of seismic disturbances of the past, the 
famous Lava Beds, in which Captain Jack, the Modoc chief, held 
out against United States troops till starved into submission, are 
volcanic areas full of mute testimony regarding nature's convul- 
sions. These lava beds are mazes of intricate passages in the rocks, 
formed by the processes of cooling and settling. 

In general the Mississippi Valley is not interested in vital ways 
concerning the volcano or its earthquaking accompaniment. It is 
conceded that the Valley of the Mississippi had its experiences 
with molten lava long before recorded time, and the glacial drift 
has buried most of it hundreds of feet below the level of the city of 
Chicago. In the Lake Superior country, however, in the copper 
and iron deposits of the region, are to be found the evidences of 
volcanic heat among the rocks. Thus, lacking anything approach- 
ing a vent or cone the valley of the great river may be regarded as 
fairly secure from a possible eruption, however little the modern 
scientist claims to know of the phenomena. 

Concerning the possible eruption of one of our own volcanoes, 
Mr. H. T. Cleveland writes as follows: 

"I stood one morning on the summit of Mount Hood, some 
11,000 feet above the sea's level. Hood is a volcano, not extinct, 
although long silent— so long that on the cascades about her the 
pine trees have risen for ages and the whole valley and gorge to 
Portland is a mass of verdure and bloom. An Italian friend with 
me commented on how much more beautiful the scene was than at 
Vesuvius, and I made the half-jesting remark: 

"No lava will ever again disturb this spot," 

Our half-breed guide looked at me incredulously, and when we 
began our descent called attention to the rings of sulphur smoke 
rising from what I suppose would be called the ' mother crater.' 
We drew as near to the edge as we dared and laid down, and a 
throbbing within the bosom of the peak was distinctly heard. It 
might be described as the sound of a far-away train coining through 
the hills with a continual roar of effort. 

"Some day," said my friend, "Hood will lift her crown of 



Light on Mystery. 245 

snow and hurl it into the distant ocean ; she will fill this gap through 
which the Columbia cuts and create an inland sea ; she will shower 
fire and destruction on Portland and the towns of this green valley, 
and the survivors of that day will wonder why they never thought 
of such horror before." 

OFFERS BHILLIANT SIGHT. 

Perhaps he was right. The same was said of Pelee years ago 
and has come true. But we descended into the valley and we came 
to Portland, and from City Park we looked back to the beautiful 
head of Hood, pink in the sunset, and my imaginative companion 
exclaimed : 

"I should like to stand here when that day of fire comes and 
witness it— and escape." 

Scientists hold to the opinion, though, that St. Augustine in 
the Alaskan region is much more likely to blow its head off before 
Hood or Rainier do. If we can trust outward signs it is several 
thousand years since Hood or Rainier spoke, but St. Augustine is 
always in a state of disturbance, and recent seismic shocks in her 
vicinity would indicate that the pressure is growing too great for 
her and that she will within near time blast out the present physical 
features of her region and make new outlines. 

As to the West Indies group, scientists agree that fire and quake 
originally created them, and that the convulsion also formed the 
Caribbean Sea, gave Florida a lusty leg and heaped up Salvador 
and the Central American chain. Resting as these regions do on 
gases and fire, built up on thin crust, close by where waters of 
ocean and internal fires of earth may meet, it is not unreasonable 
to believe that within early time (as- earth-making goes, a century 
or so) all that has been there will not be. 

ASHES m TOALASKA. 

It seems only natural that while there are volcanic disturbances 
in the West Indies there should be similar happenings in Central 
America. What is felt in the islands might well be felt in the ad- 



246 Light on Mystery. 

jacent mainland. The coincidence need occasion no alarm. It is 
a little bit different, however, with the trouble at Unalaska. Una- 
laska is one of the Aleutian Islands. It is about 7,000 miles from 
Martinique. It is far enough away to deserve exemption from the 
effects of that catastrophe in the underworld which has wrought 
such havoc on the surface. It seems, however, that for some time 
the westerly winds have brought to Unalaska a deposit of fine 
ashes, as if from a volcano. Also, the island has been itself shaken 
by earthquakes. One can hardly believe that the eruptions in 
any part of the world of late have been great enough to send ashes 
to any unusual distance. The deposits in Unalaska were made be- 
fore the eruption in Martinique. It must be that some volcano in 
northeastern Asia has been roused to exceptional activity. It is 
true that when in 1883 the Island of Krakatoa was broken to pieces 
by a discharge of volcanic matter the ashes were carried all the 
way around the earth and resulted now in a kind of continuous 
twilight and again in sunsets of extraordinary beauty. It is not 
known, however, that previous to the present Martinique disaster 
there had been during the last few months any eruption that could 
have so stupendous an effect. The phenomena at Unalaska are 
probably caused by disturbances purely local. A volcano in Kams- 
chatka could well send ashes along the Aleutian Islands. The way 
in which Sahara dust travels up into Norway proves that. If, then, 
there is a renewal of volcanic activity in northeastern Asia, the 
question presents itself whether there is any connection between the 
volcanoes of that part of the world and the volcanoes of the West 
Indies. If the right answer to this question is the affirmative, peo- 
ple who are living in the intervening districts are rather directly 
concerned. If the monster forces of the interior of the earth have a 
kind of rendezvous from which they issue now to this and now to 
that aperture, the dangers of a general convulsion are largely in- 
creased. An earthquake, however, is one of the things about which 
one need have no fear. It does no good to anticipate the thing. 
"When it comes it comes, and measures of prevention are yet to be 
discovered. Besides, the chances are some thousands to one against 
its coming. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
, VOLCANOES— THEIR CATJSE. 

Volcano Mountains— Formation of Craters— What Precedes Eruptions— Pacific 
Ocean Bounded by Volcanoes— Matter Ejected from Volcanoes— Distance 
Ejected— Nature of Lava— How Lava Moves— Gas and Sulphur and Poi- 
son Ejected. 

The causes of volcanic eruptions are set forth by Sir Robert 
Ball, the eminent scientist, as follows : 

"The internal heat of the earth derived from the primeval 
nebula is in no way more strikingly illustrated than by the phe- 
nomena of volcanoes. The evidence has proved that under the ex- 
traordinary pressure which prevails in the earth the materials in 
the central portions of our globe behave with the characteristics of 
solids rather than of liquids. 

"But, though this applies to the deep-seated regions of our 
globe, it need not universally apply to the surface, or within a mod- 
erate depth from the surface. Whenever the circumstances are 
such that the pressure is relaxed then the heat is permitted to ex- 
ercise its properties of transforming the solids into liquids. 

FORCED THROUGH EARTH'S SURFACE. 

"Masses of matter near the earth's crust are thus, in certain cir- 
cumstances and in certain localities, transformed into the fluid or 
viscid form. In that state they may issue from a volcano and flow 
in sluggish currents as lava. 

"There has been much difference of opinion as to the immediate 
cause of volcanic actions, but there can be little doubt that the en- 
ergy which is manifested in a volcanic eruption has been originally 
derived in some way from the contraction of the primeval nebula. ' ' 

CONICAL SHAPE TO VOLCANOES. 

The lava, scoriae, and ashes which are thrust out of a volcanic 
crater form highly inclined and more or less regular beds on the 
surface of the mountain, extending from the crater mouth to vary- 

347 



248 Volcanoes— Theib Cause. 

ing distances down the sides of the volcano, gives the uniform 
conical outline to volcanoes without the terraces or breaks which 
are found in almost all other mountains. The sides are often fur- 
rowed up and down by straight, narrow ravines, which increase 
in number toward the base. These are produced by the action of 
running water obtained from rain or from snows which melt in 
the heat of an eruption. The rapidity with which floods rush down 
the steep sides of a volcano gives a prodigious force to the water, 
which the loose scoriae and ashes, and even the solidified lava of 
old eruptions cannot resist. When the torrent is not water, but a 
molten mass of mineral, the force of its rush is inconceivable, and 
it is the most terrific manifestation of the power of natural forces 
which is ever seen by man. 

VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. 

It is now believed, however, that the bulk of a volcano is not 
all due to the matter ejected from the crater. Before the crust of 
the earth yields to the pressure of the masses beneath and breaks, 
there is a great bending upward, such as a mole makes as he bur- 
rows along just beneath the turf. The result is a smooth-sloping 
mound. Imagine now in the top of this mound a hole finally 
formed, up through which rush the imprisoned and swelling masses 
of molten rock. On a small scale the force tearing its way up is 
represented by a bullet going through a tin can. The force of 
the bullet not only tears a hole but also bends the tin outward. The 
area thus bent up may be a mile or five miles in extent— certainly 
not a factor to be neglected in considering what created the mass 
of a volcano as we see it. 

The grayish color of volcanic mountains is produced by the ash 
and scorise, which, though in composition the same as the dark lava, 
have this lighter color from the minute division of their particles. 
When a particular series of rocks remain on the surface, and are 
not covered by the products of more recent eruptions, they weather 
and decompose and produce an extremely fertile soil, which is 
speedily clothed with vegetation, and thus change the whole aspect 
of the once bare and uniformly colored mountain. It is this same 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 249 

richness of soil which attracts men to volcanic slopes, and from 
this soil springs the wealth of the cities which now and again in 
the world's history are overwhelmed by the very force that gave 
them life. 

FORMATION OE CRATERS. 

The crater or vent through which the materials thrown np by a 
volcano are vomited is a more or less circular opening, communi- 
cating with the subterranean source from which the materials 
come. Generally a crater is much lower on one side than on the 
other— lower on the side from which the prevailing wind comes, 
since the wind carries with it the showers of ashes to the opposite 
side of the mountain. In many cases the cone is truncated or 
cleft, a wide hollow of immense extent, and often of great depth 
occupies the summit, and in the base of this great cup the crater 
is situated. The Spanish name colder a is technically applied to 
these hollows. Their origin has been the subject of considerable 
controversy. Von Buch and others maintain that they are craters 
of elevation; that is, that the rocks were originally spread out in 
nearly horizontal deposits and then upheaved into a dome-shaped 
mountain, with the hollow caldera in the center of its summit. The 
more satisfactory explanation is that the original cone, formed by 
the alternate deposition of the lava and ashes ejected from the 
crater, has, from the great heat of the molten lava, rising in the 
tube of the volcano, or from gaseous explosions, given way and 
fallen in. This tube is conceived as going down for miles through 
the crust of the earth. During eruption the pressure upward 
through it forces up the mass of materials, which forms the moun- 
tain. This pressure ceasing, the matter in the tube sinks back just 
as mercury falls in a thermometer, and as it goes down the mass 
of material at its mouth falls back into it, and so the caldera is 
formed. The cones both of Aetna and Vesuvius have frequently 
fallen in and been reproduced. In 1822 the summit of Vesuvius 
was reduced by eight hundred feet. The immense size of some 
calderas is adduced as being opposed to this theory. 

That of the Island of Palma, one of the Canaries, is from three 
to four geographical miles in diameter, and the precipices which 



250 Volcanoes— Theib Cause. 

surround the cavity are from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in 
vertical height. They form an unbroken wall, except at the south- 
western end, where a deep gorge permits the passage of the torrent 
which drains the caldera. But even here the precipices are traversed 
by numerous vertical dykes, and exhibit all the appearances which 
would be produced by the falling in of the huge summit. This 
must have been a volcano beside which the largest of to-day would 
be as a pop-gun to a cannon. It belonged to another order of 
things, when the earth was newly a globe and intensely hot. Its 
eruption must have been more like those of the volcanoes of the sun 
than like the earthly eruptions of our time. How else was this vast 
vent ever plugged save by the mighty summit sinking back into it? 
In eruption the pressure of incandescent lava, often forces for 
itself a passage to the surface before it reaches the mouth of the 
crater, and this is more frequently the case when the volcanic 
eruption is accompanied by earthquakes. Immense vertical fis- 
sures are found radiating from the center of the volcanic action, 
reaching the surface of the ground, and even rising to the summi't 
of the mountain ; these being filled with the molten rock, which in 
course of time solidifies and forms often a large portion of the 
mountain mass, as is shown in the Val del Bore on Aetna. The 
lava sometimes pours out of these fissures instead of rising to the 
crater. This phenomenon is expressed with the vividness of a 
keen eye-witness by Palmieri in the phrase, "Vesuvius sweated 
fire." These fissures, however, were very small. In 1783, during 
a terrible eruption of the Icelandic giant Hecla, a prodigious stream 
of lava flowed from a lateral crevice, moving slowly down the 
mountain side. In forty-two days it reached a distance of fifty 
miles. Then it split into two streams, one of which ran forty, the 
other fifty miles further toward the sea. Its depth varied from 
six hundred to one thousand feet; its greatest width was fifteen 
miles. The amount of lava poured into this stream would almost 
equal Mont Blanc in bulk. 

TABLELAND OE MEXICO. 

The power which exhausts itself in the eruption of a volcano, 
often shows itself by changes which it produces in the level of the 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 251 

country round. In the eighteenth century a volcano appeared in 
the center of the great tableland of Mexico and raised an area 
of nearly four square miles five hundred and fifty feet higher than 
it was before, covering it at the same time with conical hills of 
various heights, the highest of which is Jorulla, sixteen hundred 
feet high. 

DESTRUCTION OF LIFE IN JAVA. 

On the other hand, a subsidence sometimes takes place. One 
of the most terrible of all the great natural catastrophes occurred 
in Java in 1772, when a great part of Papandayang was swallowed 
up. The inhabitants of its declivities were suddenly alarmed by 
tremendous noises in the earth, and before they had time to retire 
the mountain began to sink and soon disappeared. The area that 
thus sunk down was fifteen miles long and six broad. No day of 
judgment painted by Angelo or Dore could ever match that actual 
horror of the solid mountain sinking into the earth with human 
beings on its slopes— its huge bulk going down as a ship goes 
down into the deep. 

WARNINGS OF ERUPTIONS. 

A volcanic eruption is generally preceded by rumbling noises 
and slight movements in the earth ; then fitful puffs of gases and 
steam are given off. These warnings were given for weeks by 
Mont Pelee, but the authorities of St. Pierre heeded them not. 
The Italians, whose recorded knowledge of Vesuvius covers cen- 
turies, are more ready to take such a warning, and the Observatory 
on the volcano is supplied with instruments not less accurate than 
a barometer, which give timely warning of approaching eruptions. 
The gaseous puffs just mentioned contain much sulphur, and some 
volcanoes, among them probably Mount Pelee, give out such quan- 
tities of carbonic acid and other mephitic gases as to destroy the 
animals in the neighborhood. Sometimes such gases issue from 
fissures in volcanic soil remote from actual volcanoes. Such a 
spring of deadly gas is the scene of the death of Ernest Thompson- 
Seton's "W'ahb." Such deadly spots give rise also to the story 



252 Volcanoes— Their Cause. 

of the upas tree whose leaves are supposed to give off poison. After 
these preliminary jettings of gas, the eruption itself of a volcano 
begins with the ejection of the finest dust, which is hurled up high 
into the atmosphere, where, taken up by air currents, it is often car- 
ried to enormous distances. In 1845 the dust from Hecla was in 
ten hours thickly deposited on the Orkney and Shetland' Islands ; 
the ashes from Conseguina fell, in 1835, on the streets of Kings- 
ton, Jamaica, seven hundred miles away, and during the same 
eruption the fine dust covered the ground to a depth of over ten 
feet at a distance of thirty miles to the south of the volcano. Dur- 
ing or after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, probably the great- 
est eruption known to man, dust and mud were deposited thickly 
over an enormous area. Remarkable atmospheric effects in Cey- 
lon, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere were attributed to the pres- 
ence in the upper atmosphere of dust from this source ; and in the 
United States deeply colored skies before sunrise and after sunset, 
months after the eruption, were held to be due to the same cause. 
The imagination cannot conceive the immensity of the air-space 
filled by this dust from a comparatively tiny spot on the surface of 
the globe. Sediment left on windows after rain and snow in Eu- 
rope, on the other side of the earth from the place of the eruption, 
was chemically tested and found unmistakably to contain volcanic 
dust. Into the lungs of perhaps every human being on the earth 
passed some tiny particles of the materials thrown out of this 
Pacific volcano. 

In many descriptions of volcanic eruptions we read of flames 
issuing from the crater, but what seems to be flame is usually only 
the reflection of the glowing lava emitted from the crater upon the 
clouds of vapor and ashes. 

LAST MATTE& EJECTED IN VOLCANOES. 

In a volcanic eruption the last matter to be ejected is the lava 
and the scoriae, which are simply the cakes and flakes of molten 
matter cooled and hardened by contact with the air. Sir William 
Hamilton says that in 1779 the jets of liquid lava from Vesuvius, 
mixed with scoriae and stones, were thrown to a height of ten thou- 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 253 

sand feet, giving the appearance of a column of fire. As we have 
pointed out in the chapter on the eruption of Krakatoa, the column 
from that volcano was many times higher than any that ever rose 
from Vesuvius. From a distance this column looks as the Arabian 
story-teller conceived the genii which rose from the fisherman's 
pot in the form of a mighty column of smoke which touched the 
sky. The mind of man in early times would very easily conceive 
this pillar as a great creature about to take human form. The 
imagination itself projects that form into such a mass, just as one 
sees fantastic shapes of whale and weasel in ordinary clouds. 

Very often the lava does not rise as high as the mouth of the 
crater, but bursts through the mountain itself, burrowing under it, 
as it were, and making for itself great rents. It pours forth in a 
perfectly liquid state, bright and glowing white hot, with a splen- 
dor which is only equaled by the sun. At first it flows rapidly, but 
as its surface becomes cooled and converted into slag this outer 
covering of solidified matter greatly retards its speed. It is due 
to this phenomenon that the people of Catania, under Etna, have 
been able to watch for days the approach of a stream of lava toward 
their city, and even to take artificial measures to turn the creeping 
monster from its path. The hot and liquid lava has to burst out 
of its solid coating before it can continue its progress, and the lib- 
erated liquid lava when it does burst forth bears on its surface 
masses of scoriae, which look like the slag from an iron furnace. By 
breaking in the coating on the side of such a stream it is possible 
to draw from the main stream a great part of its substance, thus 
changing the original direction of the flow. But they who do this 
must endure terrific heat, protecting themselves with skins and 
working with long hooks. In general liquid lava follows the same 
path as it would if it were so much water, seeking ever the lowest 
places. It is this fact which keeps the Observatory on Mount 
Vesuvius from being overwhelmed when the rivers of fire burst 
forth. 

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

The mineral and chemical constituents of the various materials 
ejected by volcanoes have been carefully studied. Much valuable 



"254 Volcanoes— 'Their Cause. 

information of this technical nature and on the causes of volcanic 
action will be found in Professor Judd's book, Volcanoes: What 
They Are and What They Teach. It is rather striking in reading 
the various scientific books on volcanoes and earthquakes to see 
how purely intellectual the point of view of the writers is. In a 
great volume on Krakatoa, for instance, the fact that thirty-six 
thousand human beings were destroyed is treated in half a para- 
graph, the chemical structure of ejected materials is treated in forty 
pages. Scientific knowledge has a more human side, however, in 
the Observatory of Vesuvius, whose instruments are not merely de- 
signed to give understanding of volcanic action, but also to give 
timely warning to endangered districts. 

The theories propounded to account for volcanic action are di- 
vided into the two great classes, chemical and geological. Sir H. 
Davy suggested that if immense quantities of the metallic bases 
of the earths and alkalies were present in the interior of the earth, 
all the phenomena would be produced by their oxidization from con- 
tact with air and water. The author of the theory afterward 
abandoned it, but it has been taken up and advocated by Daubeny 
and others. Bischof, assuming that the interior of the earth con- 
sists of a highly heated and fused mass, considers that the mechan- 
ical action of water, converted into steam by the great heat, would 
produce volcanic action. Both theorists seek support for their 
views from the fact that the great majority of volcanoes are situated 
on or near the seacoast. Geologists also accepting the doctrine of 
internal heat, and believing that at a certain depth the rocks of 
the earth are, partially, at least, in a state of fusion, explain vol- 
canoes by considering them as connections established between the 
interior of the earth and the atmosphere, the elastic force of steam 
being the propelling power. From observations made in all parts 
of the world, Darwin believes that volcanoes are chiefly, and, indeed, 
almost only found in those areas where subterranean motive power 
is forcing or has lately forced upward the crust of the earth, and 
are invariably absent in those where the surface has lately subsided, 
or is still subsiding. The conception is vaster than appears from 
this simple statement. That mind which of all men's was most 
patient in collecting exact data and most fruitful of generalizations 






sM 



.+ 



m 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

A MOTHER'S LOVE. 

This picture tells the pitiful tale of a mother's brave effort to save her child from 

Mont Garou's awful fury — Both were found dead by the husband, who 

falls prostate, his life and that of an elder child's 

having- been spared. 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 257 

as brilliant and also as solid as diamonds enables us to conceive 
the whole vast inner mass of the planet, slowly and ponderously 
moving, swaying ever so slightly in proportion to its mass and yet 
enough at times to raise the continents and sink the sea-bottom. We 
venture to add an image which may aid in the conception of the 
earth and its volcanoes. Pressure upon the inner mass of the earth 
must come from all sides as the crust cools. Something has to get 
out somewhere, and it will of course come out where there is least 
resistance. In a flat country where the great layers of sedimentary 
and fire-formed rock lie level and unbroken, the squeezed interior 
matter cannot escape. The least resistance will be found in general 
along the line of those giant precipices which lift themselves from 
the deep sea bottom all about a continent, and in the great foldings 
of the earth called mountains which lie, as a rule, along sea coasts. 
We would compare the force which ejects matter from the depths 
of the earth out through a volcano 's vent to the squeeze a boy gives 
a rubber ball filled with water. The water squirts out in a stream 
comparable to that which pours from a volcanic crater. If instead 
of a local pressure applied by the boy's fingers to his ball we 
imagine the rubber surface to contain in itself some force that makes 
it shrink and then imagine certain rows of very tiny punctures 
through which the water is forced we have a -very rough parallel 
to what in our opinion is called volcanic force. 

PACIFIC OCEAN BOUNDED BY VOLCANOES. 

As Darwin proved, volcanic action is limited to particular re- 
gions of the earth and in these regions it has been noted that the 
active vents are distributed at intervals, and are generally arranged 
in lines. The Pacific ocean is bounded by an almost unbroken line 
of volcanoes. Beginning in the New South Shetlands, where there 
is an active volcano, we pass to Terra del Fuego, and then on to the 
Andes, which are throughout their whole course volcanic, although 
the centers of present action are confined to Chili, Peru, the neigh- 
borhood of Quito, Guatemala, and Mexico. The line is continued 
northward by the line of burning mountains of northwestern Amer- 
ica, and the Aleutian Islands carry the chain across to Kamchatka 



258 Volcanoes— Their Cause. 

on the Asiatic side. Here turning southward the line may be traced 
through the Kurile Islands, Japan, Formosa, the Philippines, Mo- 
luccas, New Guinea and the Saloman and New Hebrides groups to 
New Zealand. From Celebes, a branch proceeds in a northwesterly 
direction through Java and Sumatra to Barren Island in the Bay of 
Bengal ; and even beyond this we find a region in northern India 
subject to earthquakes, which may lead us, on the one hand, to the 
volcanic region of Tartary, or, on the other, through Asia Minor 
to the Greek archipelago, Sicily, Naples, and on to the Canaries and 
Cape de Verd. According to the geological theory, the lines thus 
traced over the globe represent rising lands, where the crust is less 
strong and so less liable to repress the expansive powers below. 
There are a number of isolated volcanoes also scattered over the 
surface of the earth and sea. No one can say how far back we must 
go to find the cause of their location where they are— to what acci- 
dents even as far back as the swirling nebula which was the raw 
material of the now solidified earth. These isolated volcanoes are 
supposed to have opened a star-shaped communication with the in- 
terior. The most remarkable of these isolated volcanoes are Jan 
Mayen, those in Iceland and Mount Erebus in South Polarland. 

ACTION OF VOLCANOES. 

The action of volcanoes embraces all the phenomena connected 
with the expulsion of heated materials from the interior of the earth 
to the surface. They may break through any kind of geological 
formation. In Aevergne, in the miocene period, they burst through 
the granite and gneiss ore plateau of central France ; in the period 
of the lower old red sandstone they pierced Silurian rocks in Scot- 
land ; in the late tertiary and post-tertiary ages they found their way 
through the marine strata, and formed such huge piles as Etna and 
Vesuvius ; on the banks of the Ehine they have penetrated some of 
the older alluvia of the river. In many instances new volcanoes 
have appeared on the site of old ones. In Scotland, for example, 
the carboniferous volcanoes have risen on the site of those of the old 
red sandstone time. Somma and Vesuvius have risen from the great 
Neapolitan plain of marine tufa. One who has any conception of the 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 259 

immense period of time during which volcanoes have been part of 
the scheme of this planet must marvel at the blindness of those 
fanatics who since the eruption of Mont Pelee prophesy that the 
St. Pierre catastrophe is only the beginning of the end of the world. 
For hundreds, perhaps for thousands of thousands of years vol- 
canoes have been doing what Mont Pelee has done, except for the ter- 
rible accident of a cityful of people lying in the path of its dis- 
charged matter. It seems incredible that in this enlightened age 
men can be so densely ignorant of the past and have their vision 
limited to such a tiny span of earthly time as to think this particular 
volcanic eruption forebodes the destruction of the planet. 

CLASSES OF VOLCANOES. 

It is usual to class volcanoes as active, dormant and extinct, but 
while the active volcano cannot be mistaken it is often impossible 
to determine whether a volcano is extinct or only dormant. This 
impossibility has at times cost many human beings their lives. The 
volcanoes of the Silurian age in Wales, of the Carboniferous age in 
Ireland, of the Permian age in the Hartz mountains, and of the 
Miocene age in the Hebrides, are certainly extinct, Miocene vol- 
canoes, however, are still active in Iceland in Skaptar- Jokull and 
Hecla. Somma in the time of Pompeii was regarded as extinct ; its 
fires had never been known to have kindled; its vast crater was a 
wilderness of vines and brushwood— haunts of the wolf and the 
wild boar. Yet, as we shall see, the wall of the crater was blown 
out one day by a series of terrific explosions, the present Vesuvius 
was formed within the limits of the old crater and Pompeii was no 
more. From that day to this the volcano has been active, although 
there have been long intervals of quiet. Between 1500 and 1631 it 
was entirely dormant, its crater overgrown with vines and brush- 
wood. Near the close of 1631, however, there came an eruption 
never equaled since the last day of Pompeii in 79 A. D. In the life 
of a volcano a period such as this of a hundred and sixty-one years 
is but a moment— as the time between one breath of a human being 
and the next, 



260 Volcanoes— Their Cause. 

MATERIAL THROWN OUT BY VOLCANOES. 

Three kinds of material are thrown up by volcanoes— gases, lava 
and fragmentary substances. Gases and vapors are the earliest 
development in an eruption and steam is the most abundant of all. 
In great eruptions it rises in enormous quantities and rapidly con- 
denses into rain. It has been calculated that in a hundred days Etna 
threw up enough vapor to make two hundred million barrels of 
water. This vapor is mixed with various materials, the most abun- 
dant being sulphurated hydrogen —giving a kind of hard-boiled-egg 
smell— and being the source of sulphur deposits such as those which 
have given its name to the volcano La Soufriere on St. Vincent's 
Island. At Vesuvius and some other volcanoes hydrochloric acid 
appears, and in others nitrogen. Carbonic acid is sometimes given 
off so abundantly that small animals and birds are suffocated by it. 
Through this circumstance some volcanic crater gave the ancients 
their conception of the gateway into the infernal world of Hades 
and caused the name Avermus, "the birdless place," to be given 
to it because in its neighborhood no bird could live. With these 
gases and vapors, some of them poisonous, are associated many 
substances which being sublimated by volcanic heat appear as de- 
posits along crevices and surfaces where they reach the air and 
are cooled. These are salammoniac, specular iron, oxide of copper, 
boracic acid, the chlorides of sodium, iron, copper, lead 
and, most abundant of all, sulphur. It was for this, when 
their gunpowder gave out that the indomitable lieutenants of Cortes 
ascended Popocatapetl and were lowered an immense depth into 
its crater. The chloride of sodium or common salt is sometimes so 
abundantly deposited as to form valuable salt-mines. 

The sources of the great quantities of water poured out by vol- 
canoes, as mentioned as far back as the time of Lucretius in his 
poem on Etna, are melting snow, the condensation of great volumes 
of steam, and the disruption of reservoirs of water in subterranean 
recesses. The volcanoes of South America often throw up great 
quantities of dead fish, it is said, which seems to indicate a direct 
connection with the ocean. In Guatemala is a kind of temperance 
volcano which throws out nothing but water. In Java is a volcano 



Volcanoes— -Their Cause. 261 

whose crater holds a hot, steaming lake of acid water. A destructive 
eruption of this volcano in 1817 greatly reduced the temperature 
of this water. Sometimes the water and dirt are thrown up together 
in the form of mud. 

THE NATURE OF LAVA. 

"When cooled, lava is a light, porous stone containing a variety of 
mineral substances. Some lavas are crystalline, some half glossy or 
stony; others like glass. They vary also in color and in general 
external aspect. Their surface is commonly rough and rugged until 
it has been sufficiently decomposed to crumble into soil, which is 
the richest on earth and under favorable circumstances will support 
a luxurious vegetation. 

Volcanic action may be either constant or periodic. Without 
interruption and without great violence Stromboli has been throwing 
up hot stones, steam and lava since the dawn of history. The 
Moluccas and Friendly Island volcanoes, Sangay in Quito, and Coto- 
paxi in Mexico, are of the same type, being constantly active. The 
volcanoes which lie perfectly quiet for long whiles are the ones 
whose bursting forth is furious. This is because the lava column 
in the pipe or funnel of the volcano, which in another passage we 
liken to the rising of the mercury in a thermometric tube, ascends 
slowly, forced upward and kept in perpetual agitation by the pas- 
sage of elastic vapors through its mass. After long quiescence the 
vent is likely to contain much solid lava, which holds down the 
melted part. This acts precisely as a wad over powder in a gun- 
barrel, intensifying the explosion in precisely the same manner. A 
vast pressure is thus exerted on the sides of the cone. Should these 
be too weak to resist, they will open in one or more rents, and the 
liquid lava will issue from the outer slope of the mountain; or the 
energies of the volcano will be directed toward clearing the obstruc- 
tion in its throat, until, with tremendous explosions, and vast clouds 
of dust and fragments, the bottom and sides of the crater are blown 
out, and the top of the cone disappears. The lava may now pour 
over the lowest part of the lip of the crater, while at the same time, 
immense quantities of red-hot bombs, scoriae and stones are shot, up 



262 Volcanoes— Their Cause. 

into the air, most of them falling back into the crater, but many de- 
scending upon the outer slopes of the cone, and some even upon the 
country beyond the base of the mountain. The lava rushes down 
at first like a river of molten iron, but, as it cools, its rate of motion 
lessens. Clouds of steam rise from its surface, as well as from the 
central crater. Indeed, every successive paroxysmal convulsion of 
the mountain is marked, even at a distance, by the rise of huge ball- 
like wreaths or clouds of steam mixed with dust and stones, forming 
a vast column which towers sometimes a couple of miles above the 
summit of the cone. By degrees these diminish in frequency and 
intensity. The lava ceases to flow, the shower of stones and dust 
dwindles down, and after a time, which, with the same mountain, 
may vary from hours to days or months, the volcano becomes tran- 
quil. 

VIOLENCE AND NATURE OF VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONS. 

The violence of volcanic explosions is remarkable. The history 
of the cone of Vesuvius brings before us a long series of such ex- 
plosions beginning with that in 79 A. D., which, excepting Krakatoa, 
was the greatest known in human history. Even now, in spite of all 
the ashes and lava poured out during the last 1800 years, it is easy 
to see how stupendous must have been that explosion by which the 
southern half of the crater was blown out. At every successive im- 
portant eruption a similar operation takes place within the present 
cone. The hard cake of lava forming the floor is burst open, and 
with it there usually disappears much of the upper part of the cone, 
and sometimes, as in 1872, a large segment of the crater wall. In 
1538 a new volcano was formed on the shores of the bay of Naples. 
A cavity was made by successive explosions and such quantities of 
stones, scoria?, and ashes thrown from it as to form a hill 440 feet 
above the sea level and more than 8,000 feet in circumference. 
Showers of dust and stones are a conspicuous feature of volcanic 
eruptions. Instances are known where stones eight pounds in 
weight have passed through enormous parabolic curves in the air 
and fallen at a great distance. Such stones are found in the ashes 
that entombed Pompeii. But in many great eruptions, besides a 
constant shower of stones and scoria?, a vast column of exceedingly 



Volcanoes— Theik Cause. 263 

fine dust rises out of the crater, sometimes to the height of more 
than a mile, and then spreads outward like a sheet of cloud. So 
dense sometimes is this dust-cloud that the sun is obscured, and for 
days together the darkness reigns for miles around the volcano. 

In 1822 this was the case at Vesuvius, the ashes not only falling 
on the villages around the base of the mountain, but traveling as far 
as Ascoli, 56 Italian miles from the mountain on one side, and to 
Casona, 105 miles away on the other side. But probably the most 
stupendous outpouring of volcanic ashes on record was that which 
took place after a quiescence of twenty-six years from the volcano 
of Conseguina, in Nicaragua, during the early part of 1835. On 
that occasion utter darkness prevailed over a circle of 70 miles in 
diameter, the ashes falling so thickly that even 24 miles from the 
mountain they covered the ground to a depth of ten feet. It was 
estimated that the rain of dust and sand fell over an area of 270 
geographical miles in diameter. Some of the finer materials thrown 
so high as to come within the influence of the upper air current were 
blown away to the east and fell four days afterward on the island of 
Jamaica, 700 miles away. Bombs, slags, and lapilli may be thrown 
up when the volcano is comparatively quiet, but dust-showers are 
always discharged with violence. Thus in the constant but com- 
paratively quiet action of Stromboli the column of the lava in the 
pipe may be seen rising and falling with a slow rhythmical motion. 
At every rise the surface of the lava swells up into blisters several 
feet in diameter which by and by burst with a sharp explosion that 
makes the walls of the crater vibrate. A cloud of steam rushes out, 
carrying with it hundreds of fragments of the glowing lava, some- 
times to the height of a quarter of a mile. It is by the ascent of 
steam through the mass that a column of lava is kept boiling at the 
bottom of the crater, and by the explosion of successive larger bub- 
bles of steam that the various bombs, slags, and fragments of lava 
are torn off and tossed into the air. It has often been noticed at 
Vesuvius that, after each great concussion, a huge ball-like cloud of 
steam rises from the crater. Doubtless it is the sudden bursting of 
that steam which causes the explosion. Explosions and accompany- 
ing scoriae are abundant in Vesuvius, where the lavas are compara- 



264 Volcanoes— Theie Cause. 

lively viscid; but they are almost unknown at Kilauea, where the 
lava is remarkably liquid. 

No part of the operations of a volcano has greater significance 
than the ejection of such enormous quantities of fragmentary mat- 
ter. In these deposits are buried trees, the bodies of animals, and 
the works of man. Besides the distance to which fragments may be 
hurled by volcanic explosion, or to which they may be diffused by 
the air, we have to take into account the vast spaces across which 
the finer dust may be borne by upper aerial currents. On several 
occasions ashes from Icelandic volcanoes have fallen so thickly be- 
tween the Orkney and the Shetland Islands that vessels there at sea 
have had the strange deposits shoveled off their decks. In 1783 
Skaptar-Jokull ejected so much fine dust that the atmosphere of all 
Iceland was loaded with it for months afterward. It fell in such 
quantities over Caithness, a distance of 600 miles, as to destroy the 
crops, and the period is still remembered in Scotland as ' ' the year of 
the ashie. ' ' Traces of the same deposit were observed as far as Hol- 
land. It is not therefore to be held that a volcanic deposit indicates 
proximity to a volcanic center, since it may have drifted from an- 
other center hundreds of miles away. 

LAVA STEEAMS. 

Lava streams usually consist of glass through which are diffused 
microlites ; and well-defined crystals of leucite may be seen in speci- 
mens of Vesuvius lava which have been dipped from a white-hot 
stream and suddenly congealed. The green pyroxenic lava of 
Hawaii exhibits so extreme a degree of fluidity that, during its 
ebullition in pools of the crater, jets not more than a quarter of an 
inch in diameter are tossed up, and, falling back on one another, 
make a column of "hardened tears of lava," while in places the jets 
thrown up and blown aside by the wind give rise to long threads of 
glass which lie thickly together like mown hay. The natives call this 
"Pele's hair," after one of their divinities. At its first appearance, 
where it issues from the mountain, the lava glows with a white heat, 
and flows with a motion which has been compared to that of hone} 7 
or of melted iron. It soon becomes red, and, like a coal fallen from 
a hot fireplace, rapidly grows dull as it moves along, until it assumes 



Volcanoes— Their Cause. 265 

a black, cindery aspect. At the same time the surface congeals, and 
soon becomes solid enough to support a heavy block of stone. Its 
aspect depends, not merely on the composition and fluidity of the 
lava, but on the point of egress, whether from the crater or from a 
fissure, on the form of the ground, the angle of slope, and the rapid- 
ity of flow. 

Lavas which have been kept in ebullition within the central 
chimney are very apt to acquire a rough cellular texture. The sur- 
face of the moving stream breaks up into rough brown or black cin- 
der-like slags, and irregular rugged cakes, which, with the onwardmo- 
tion, grind and grate against each other with a harsh metallic sound, 
sometimes rising into rugged mounds or becoming seamed with 
rents and gashes, at the bottom of which the red-hot glowing lava 
may be seen. When lava escapes from a lateral fissure it may have 
no scoria?, but its surface will present froth-like, curving lines, as in 
the scum of a slowly flowing river, or will be arranged in curious, 
ropy folds as the layers have successively flowed over each other and 
congealed. These and many other fantastic coiled shapes were ex- 
hibited by the lava which flowed from the side of Vesuvius in 1858. 
A large area which has been flooded with lava is perhaps the most 
hideous and appalling scene of desolation anywhere to be found on 
the surface of the globe. A lava stream at its point of escape from 
the side of a volcanic cone occupies a comparatively narrow breadth ; 
but it usually spreads out as it descends, and moves more slowly. 

HOW LAVA MOVES. 

The sides of the moving mass look like huge embankments, or like 
some of the large mounds of ' ' clinkers ' ' one sees in a manufacturing 
district. The advancing end of the mass is often much steeper, 
creeping onward like a great wall or rampart, down the face of 
which the rough blocks of hardened lava are ever rattling. The rate 
of movement is regulated by the fluidity of the lava, by its volume, 
and by the form and inclination of the ground. Hence, as a rule, a 
lava-stream moves faster at first than afterward, because it has not 
had time to stiffen, and its slope of descent is considerably steeper 
than further down the mountain. One of the most fluid and swiftly- 



266 Volcanoes— Theib Cause. 

flowing lava streams ever observed on Vesuvius was thrown out 
August 12, 1805. It is said to have rushed down a space of 
three Italian (three and two-thirds English) miles in the first four 
minutes, but to have widened out and moved more slowly as it de- 
scended, and finally to have reached Torre del Greco in three hours. 
A lava stream thrown out by Manna Loa in 1852 went as fast as an 
ordinary stage-coach, or fifteen miles in two hours. Long after a 
current has been deeply crusted over with slags and rough slabs of 
lava it continues to creep slowly forward for weeks or even months. 
The hardened crust of a lava current is a poor conductor of heat. 
In the case of Jorilla, a volcano in Mexico, lava was sent out in 
1759, and twenty-one years afterward cigars could be lighted at the 
fissures in the deposit ; after forty-four years the lava still sent up 
steam, and after eighty-seven years two vapory columns were still 
rising. No sure means have been found to ascertain the temperature 
of lava at the moment of discharge ; but the slow rate of cooling has 
been regarded as of high geological significance in regard to the 
cooling and probable internal temperature of the globe. 

Besides slags, dust, and lava, sometimes large quantities of 
water and mud accompany volcanic eruptions. During the eruption 
of Vesuvius in 1662 a torrent of water and mud poured down, over- 
throwing the houses and burying the inhabitants of villages. Near 
the foot of the mountain Roman cities were overwhelmed in the first 
century. In 1691 one of the volcanoes of Quito threw up mud and 
water so filled with dead fish as to cause a pestilence. Even 
more destructive outpourings have taken place in the volcanoes of 
Java, where wide tracts of luxuriant vegetation have at different 
times been buried under masses of dark gray mud sometimes 100 
feet thick. Mud volcanoes, perhaps not strictly volcanic, have 
periods of repose, when no discharge takes place, or the mud oozes 
tranquilly from the orifice, with shocks of activity, when large vol- 
umes of gas and sometimes columns of flame rush out with violence, 
throwing up mud and stones. The mud is usually cold. 

GAS, SULPHITE AND POISON. 

Among the products of such volcanoes are naphtha, inflammable 
gas and sulphur. There are also many remarkable discharges of 



Volcanoes— Theie Cause. 267 

gases from the earth which seem to come from volcanic action. 
The most remarkable of these is in Java, known as the Valley of 
Death. There is a deep, bosky hollow, in which from one small 
space qn the bottom carbonic acid issues so copiously as to form 
the lower stratum of the atmosphere. Animals enticed by the 
seclusion and shelter of the spot pass in and are suffo- 
cated. This is the place that was long known as the val- 
ley of the Bohon Upas, and the poison was supposed to come 
from a tree called by that name. From end to end this island is a 
chain of vents and craters, which, when active, have thrown out mud 
instead of lava, and along with this mud have come sulphurous 
vapors, and even sulphuric acid, in such quantities that a lake near 
a crater is so strongly impregnated as to kill every living thing that 
enters its waters. Not only this, but the stream which flows out of 
the lake is so acrid that the fishes of the sea near the mouth of the 
river are destroyed the moment they touch it. 

Some of the accounts of the sla}dng of the inhabitants of St. 
Pierre seem to indicate that from Mont Pelee burst down a wave of 
some, such heavy, life-destroying gas. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
THE FAMOUS VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD. 

What They Are— How Formed— Table of Volcanoes— Pacific Ocean— Atlantic 
Ocean — Indian Ocean — Mediterranean Sea. 

Volcanoes, being limited to particular places, have caused far 
less destruction of human life since history began than earthquakes, 
but the form of destruction is even more appalling. The recent 
volcanic catastrophe has roused in the minds of all men as never 
before a desire to know just what manner of thing a volcano is. To 
meet this desire we give the following account. Volcanoes are, es- 
sentially, openings in the earth's crust from which various kinds of 
matter in a highly heated condition are ejected, such as gases, steam, 
ashes and cinders, masses of solid rock, boiling mud and molten rock 
called lava. The heavier portions of the materials thus ejected fall 
back within and around the vent, thus in time building up the hilly 
or mountainous cones by which volcanoes are in general distin- 
guished. To account for them we must conceive the earth as a ball 
whose crust in cooling contracts and thus increases the pressure on 
the mass within to such a point that it must somewhere escape. Vol- 
canoes, terrible as their effects are, are really safety valves without 
which the very planet would be blown up. The same slow shrinking 
of the earth's crust which produces volcanoes likewise causes earth- 
quakes. 

The depression in the top of the conical formation of a volcano is 
called its crater. The appearance of burning and of vomiting forth 
flame and smoke, which was noted at Martinique and other great 
eruptions, is not caused by external combustion, but is simply the 
fiery reflection thrown upon the ascending volumes of steam and 
vapor from the incandescent materials within the vent. The action 
of one volcano is so much like that of every other that a professor of 
geology in Chicago was able to correct the statements of newspaper 

268 



The Famous Volcanoes or the World. 269 

correspondents who gathered their information about Mont Pelee 
on the spot, 

HOW VOLCANOES ARE FORMED. 

Volcanic structures are formed not only on the land but rise from 
the bed of the great ocean floor. In Rudyard Kipling's sea-ser- 
pent yarn ironically called by him ' ' A Matter of Fact, ' ' he gives a 
marvelous description of the effect of a submarine earthquake upon 
the surface of the sea. In his story two vast sea monsters that had 
lived down there in the dark for centuries perhaps were thrown to 
the surface by the earthquake beneath miles of water and were seen 
of the eyes of men. We may take the monsters with a whole hogs- 
head of salt, but the description of the action of the sea is accurate 
and well worth reading. Not fiction but fact is the rising of a vol- 
cano above the surface of the sea in 1796, about thirty miles to the 
north of Unalaska, in the Pacific ocean. A column of smoke was 
first seen rising from the water. The ejected materials having raised 
the crater above the level of the water, flames issued from the new 
islet and brightly illuminated the waters for ten miles around. Six 
years afterwards, when a few hunters landed on the new shore they 
found the soil in some places so hot that they could not walk upon it. 
Repeated eruptions have increased the dimensions of the island 
until it now rises several thousand feet above sea level and is be- 
tween two and three miles in circumference. Not far from this new 
baby among volcanic isles is the giant Klintschewsk which rises 
sheer from the sea to the enormous height of 15,000 feet, as high, 
that is, as Mont Blanc, with no range of mountains near to dwarf 
its height. 

THE FAMOUS VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD. 

The name volcano is borrowed from Vulcan, god of fire, and 
originally the name was applied only to Mount Etna in Sicily, 
the volcano most famous in classical times and the one which yet 
leads all others in the number of its recorded eruptions. One in 
1149 B. C. is said to have driven the demigod Hercules from the 
island, but the first actually recorded and not merely a matter of 
tradition was in the time of Pythagoras. Later the word volcano 



270 The Famous Volcanoes of the Would. 

became the general name for a mountain with a. crater or opening 
into a mass of molten rock within the earth. Such mountains are 
widely distributed over the world, but are mostly near the sea. 
They are variable in activity, and usually intermittent; sometimes 
quiet for many years or even centuries, and again extremely violent, 
throwing high in the air vast columns of smoke and fire with cinders, 
and pouring through crevices streams of lava or melted rocks, which 
at times cover large tracts of land, sometimes with a suddenness that 
brings appalling disaster to the dwellers on their slopes. 

Many volcanoes, once active, have been quiescent since the dawn 
of history. We give a list of active and extinct volcanoes located by 
groups. There are two systems, one called the central, the other the 
linear. The former consists of several vents grouped together, and 
of these only one is usually in eruption at any one time. The latter 
system consists of vents extending in one direction along a range 
of mountains, as the Andes in South America, and extending into 
North America as the Rocky Mountains. Some, long regarded as 
extinct, have suddenly become active. 



CENTEAL SYSTEM— GROUPS. 

MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 
NAME OE GROUP. NO. REMARKS. 

I. Etna, Sicily. 1 Active. 

II. Vesuvius, Italy. 1 Active. 

III. Lipari Islands. 2 Stromboli, the principal, al- 

ways mildly active, called 
the "Light-house of the 
Mediterranean. ' ' 

ATLANTIC OCEAN. 

IV. Jan Mayen Island. 2 Active, most northern vol- 

canoes on the globe. 
V. Iceland. 8 Hecla, the principal, all ac- 

tive. 
VI. Azores. 2 1 active. 

VII. Canary Islands. 5 1 active (Teneriffe quiet). 



The Famous Volcanoes of the World. 

REMARKS. 



271 



NAME OF GROUP. NO. 

VIII. Cape Verde Islands. 1 

IX. Ascension. 1 
X. Tristan d'Acuna 

Islands. 1 

XI. Trinidad Island. 1 

XII. Traverse Isles. 2 



Active. 



1 active. 

INDIAN OCEAN. 



XIII. Mauritius and Bour 
bon Isles. 



3 1 active. 

PACIFIC OCEAN. 



XIV. Hawaiian Archi- 
pelago. 4 

XV. Galapagos Islands. 1 

XVI. Marquesas Islands. 1 

XVII. Society Islands. 1 

XVIII. Easter Islands. 1 



WESTERN ASIA. 

XIX. El Burs, Ararat, etc. 3 1 active. 

EASTERN AFRICA. 

XX. Zana:uebar. 2 



3 active, Kilauea and Mauna, 

Loa the principal. 
Active. 



LINEAR SYSTEM—GROUPS. 

MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 



I. Santorini, Greek 
Islands. 



II. Thian-Shan. 

III. Red Sea. 

IV. Kamchatka. 



ASIA. 

2 

2 

21 



Active. 



Active. 
1 active. 
All active. 



272 



The Famous Volcanoes of the World, 
south pacific ocean. 



NAME OF GROUP. 


NO. 


REMARKS. 


V. 


Friendly Isles. 


4 


2 active. 


VI. 


Australasian Isles. 


13 


All active. 




NORTH PACIFIC 


OCEAN. 


VII. 


Moluccas— Philip- 








pines, Formosa. 


37 


At least 25 active. 


VIII. 


Ladrone Isles. 


T 


3 active. 


IX. 


Bonin Sima Isles. 


2 


Both active. 


X. 


Japan. 


23 


From 15 to 19 active 


XI. 


Kurile Isles. 


18 


11 active. 


XII. 


Aleutian Isles. 


35 


23 active. 



INDIAN OCEAN, SUNDA. 



XIII. Sunda Isles. 



XIV. North Pacific Coast. 
XV. Mexico. 
XVI. Central America. 
XVII. West Indies. 



XVIII. South America, 
Quito. 
XIX. Peru and Bolivia. 
XX. Chili. 
XXL Terra, del Fuego. 
XXII. Antarctic Continent. 



80 47 are on the island of Java, 
16 of them active, and 7 on 
the island of Sumatra. On 
the Island of Krakatoa the 
greatest eruption of modern 
times occurred 26th-28th of 
August, 1883. 

AMERICA. 

10 4 active. 
7 5 active. 

36 25 active. 

10 7 active, among them Mont 
Pelee, on the Island oi Mar- 
tinique, which overwhelmed 
St. Pierre. 

17 10 active. 
12 9 highest in the world. 
22 17 active. 
3 

3 Active, Erebus on Victoria 
Land, 77° 32' S. Lai, is the 
most southern volcano 
known. 




"-I is 



Q 
< 

-J 
I— I 



Ph 

> — i 

hJ 
I— I 

Oh 



PQ 






u 



^ <D 




w o 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE DESTRUCTION OE POMPEII. 

Lost for Centuries— Excavations Begun in 1755— Living Pictures— Bulwer's 
Magic Description— Love Amid the Ruins— Boiling Water— Ghostly Pic- 
tures. 

In the first year of the reign of Titus (August 24th, A. D. 79) 
occurred the most terrible eruption of the volcano of Vesuvius ever 
known, completely destroying the three cities of Herculaneum, Sta- 
biae and Pompeii, the latter a favorite resort of wealthy Romans 
who had their country villas in its suburbs. Pompeii was then a 
seaport situated at the mouth of the Sarnus river. It was much 
damaged by an earthquake on February 5th, A. D. 63, this earth- 
quake being alluded to in Bulwer-Lytton 's ' ' Last Days of Pompeii. ' ' 
On that August day, the very last of Pompeii, the terrific eruption 
of the volcano overwhelmed it in irremediable ruin. The elder Pliny, 
the great naturalist, perished with the city that day. His nephew, 
Pliny the younger, afterwards wrote that account of the catastrophe 
which is the chief source of our knowledge thereof. 

POMPEII LOST FOR CENTURIES. 

In course of time a small village rose at or near the spot ; but 
by and by the memory of Pompeii was lost, and for centuries its 
very site was unknown. The difficulty of discovering its true posi- 
tion was increased by the topographical changes wrought by the 
convulsion which destroyed it, and, hurling back the river Sarnus 
from its ancient course, raised the sea-beach to a considerable 
height. When finally in 1689 some ruins were noticed, the city to 
which merchant vessels once resorted was a mile from the coast and 
a considerable distance from the river that used to skirt its walls. 

EXCAVATION BEGUN IN 1755. 

In 1755 excavation of the ancient "City of the Dead" was begun 
by the Neapolitan government and continued far into the nineteenth 



275 



276 The Destruction oe Pompeii. 

century. It produced objects and brought to light details of ancient 
life that wonderfully enrich our modern conception of how the peo- 
ple lived two thousand years ago. The remains are found in a 
remarkably good state of preservation owing to the fact that the 
city was destroyed not by a stream of lava as St. Pierre has just now 
been destroyed, but by showers of sand, ashes and cinders, forming 
a light covering, which found its way into every nook, and her- 
metically sealed up the town. In some parts the volcanic matter was 
deposited in the form of liquid mud like that which formed on the 
decks and sails of the vessels near Krakatoa in 1883, and this liquid 
mud flowed into the remotest cellars of the doomed habitations. 

Contrary to the general popular belief, it is probable that the in- 
habitants of Pompeii (numbering only 20,000) had sufficient 
warning of the approaching calamity to enable them to flee. Some 
of them, however, certainly delayed their flight until it was too late 
to save themselves, as is fully proved by the remains of human 
beings found in situations showing that they were instantaneously 
overtaken by death. The bodies of seventeen Roman people were 
thus discovered in the cellar of one house in Pompeii, inclosed in a 
hard substance, which must have rushed in upon them, engulfing 
them and then hardening about them as it cooled. When this 
cellar was excavated the skeleton of a woman with a child in her arms 
was discovered and these two were inclosed in a mold of volcan- 
ic paste which retained a perfect impression of their forms. Signor 
Fiorelli, the director of the excavations, had these molds filled with 
liquid plaster, thus obtaining casts of the forms they once contained. 

On the skeleton finger of the woman just mentioned were gold 
rings and about its neck a gold chain. In the barracks were found 
the remains of two soldiers chained to the stocks, and doubtless for- 
gotten amid the terror, darkness and confusion of that terrible 
August day. In some of the two-story Pompeian houses, built like 
the Spanish houses of to-day around a small central court, there 
were amphorae, earthen vessels in which wine yet remained when 
the city was unearthed, and about these vessels, upon the marble 
slabs, stood drinking cups. Olives in a remarkable state of preser- 
vation were found in a jar. A box of pills stood on the counter of 
an apothecary. In a fruiterer's shop were chestnuts, walnuts and 



The Destruction of Pompeii. 277 

almonds which presented no evidence of decay. So marvelously 
close did the excavators come to the life of people who died eighteen 
hundred years before. Had it not been for the mineral rain that 
poured down from the sky those very chestnuts which modern labor- 
ers beheld would have been eaten by ancient Romans. So were found 
needles, scissors, compasses, fine surgical instruments, silver spoons, 
all kinds of kitchen implements and tools for working at various 
trades. Over the doors of shops may still be seen the painted signs 
which advertised the trade carried on inside the house. 

RUBBISH FROM MANY ERUPTIONS. 

The superincumbent rubbish, in most places about fifteen feet 
in depth, is the accumulation of different eruptions, as many as nine 
distinct layers having been counted, and of these sometimes the 
lower layers have been disturbed by human hands while those above 
have not. The comparatively few skeletons found and the almost 
entire absence of objects of great value, as gold and silver plate, 
shows perhaps that most of the inhabitants escaped and then re- 
turned to bury their dead and take away their treasures. Two hun- 
dred skeletons, however, were found in the temple of Juno, where 
the living beings must have rushed to seek the protection of the god- 
dess. 

LIVING PICTURE OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 

The walls of the city are about two miles in circumference. 
Within these walls the greatest disaster of ancient times has pre- 
served for the enlightenment of our age a living picture, as it were, 
of a city of eighteen hundred and twenty-three years ago. 

The genius of Bulwer has restored to life certain types of human 
beings who lived in that old city. He gives the following description 
of the eruption of Vesuvius at the climax of his story when one of 
the chief characters, Arbaces, is in the arena, and a great mob of the 
Roman populace is demanding that he be thrown to the lion. The 
waves of the human sea halted for a moment, to enable Arbaces to 
count the moments of his doom ! In despair, and in a terror which 
beat down even pride, he glanced his eyes over the rolling and rush- 
ing crowd, when, right above them, through the wide chasm which 



278 The Destruction of Pompeii. 

had been left in the velaria, he beheld a stranger and awful appari- 
tion ; he beheld, and his craft restored his courage ! 

He stretched his hand on high; over his lofty brow and royal 
features there came an expression of unutterable solemnity and 
command. 

BTJLWER'S MAGIC DESCRIPTION. 

' ' ' Behold ! ' he shouted with a voice of thunder, which stilled the 
roar of the crowd ; 'behold how the gods protect the guiltless ! The 
fires of the avenging Orcus burst forth against the false witness of 
my accusers ! ' 

' ' The eyes of the crowd followed the gesture of the Egyptian, 
and beheld, with ineffable dismay, a, vast vapor shooting from the 
summit of Vesuvius, in the form of a gigantic pine-tree, the trunk, 
blackness, the branches, fire,— a fire that shifted and wavered in its 
hues with every moment, now fiercely luminous, now of a dull and 
dying red, that again blazed terrifically forth with intolerable glare. 
"There was a dead, heart-sunken silence, through which there 
suddenly broke the roar of the lion, which was echoed back from 
within the building by the sharper and fiercer yells of its fellow- 
beast. Dread seers were they of the Burden of the Atmosphere, and 
wild prophets of the wrath to come ! 

' ' Then there arose on high the universal shrieks of women ; the 
men stared at each other, but were dumb. At that moment they felt 
the earth shake beneath their feet ; the walls of the theater trembled, 
and beyond in the distance they heard the crash of falling roofs ; an 
instant more and the mountain-cloud seemed to roll towards them, 
dark and rapid, like a torrent ; at the same time it cast forth from 
its bosom a shower of ashes mixed with vast fragments of burning 
stone ! Over the crushing vines, over the desolate streets, over the 
amphitheater itself, far and wide, with many a mighty splash in the 
agitated sea, fell that awful shower ! 

* ' No longer thought the crowd of justice or of Arbaces ; safety 
for themselves was their sole thought. Each turned to fly,— each 
dashing, pressing, crushing, against the other. Trampling recklessly 
over the fallen, amidst groans, and oaths, and prayers, and sudden 
shrieks, the enormous crowd vomited itself forth through the numer- 



The Destruction op Pompeii. 279 

ous passages. Whither should they fly? Some, anticipating a sec- 
ond earthquake, hastened to their homes to load themselves with 
their more costly goods, and escape while it was yet time ; others, 
dreading the showers of ashes that now fell fast, torrent upon tor- 
rent, over the streets, rushed under the roofs of the nearest houses, 
or temples, or sheds,— shelter of any kind,— for protection from the 
terrors of the open air. But darker, and larger, and mightier, spread 
the cloud above them. It was a sudden and more ghastly Night 
rushing upon the realm of Noon ! 

"Meanwhile Glaucus and Nydia were pacing swiftly up the 
perilous and fearful streets. The Athenian had learned from his 
preserver that lone was yet in the house of Arbaces. Thither he 
fled, to release— to save her! The few slaves whom the Egyptian 
had left at his mansion when he had repaired in long procession to 
the amphitheater had been able to offer no resistance to the armed 
band of Sallust ; and when afterwards the volcano broke forth, they 
had huddled together, stunned and frightened, in the inmost recesses 
of the house. Even the tall Ethiopian had forsaken his post at the 
door ; and Glaucus (who left Nydia without— the poor Nydia, jealous 
once more, even in such an hour!) passed on through the vast hall 
without meeting one from whom to learn the chamber of lone. 
Even as he passed, however, the darkness that covered the heavens 
increased so rapidly that it was with difficulty he could guide his 
steps. The flower-wreathed columns seemed to reel and tremble, 
and with every instant he heard the ashes fall cranchingiy into the 
roofless peristyle. He ascended to the upper rooms ; breathless he 
passed along, shouting aloud the name of lone; and at length he 
heard, at the end of a gallery, a voice,— her voice, in wondering re- 
ply. To rush forward, to shatter the door, to seize lone in his arms, 
to hurry from the mansion, seemed to him the work of an instant ! 
Scarce had he gained the spot where Nydia was, than he heard steps 
advancing towards the house, and recognized the voice of Arbaces, 
who had returned to seek his wealth and lone ere he fled from the 
doomed Pompeii. But so dense was already the reeking atmosphere, 
that the foes saw not each other, though so near, save that, dimly in 
the gloom, Glaucus caught the moving outline of the snowy robes of 
the Egyptian. 



280 The Desteuction of Pompeii. 

"They hastened onward,— those three. Alas! whither 1 They 
now saw not a step before them,— the blackness became utter. They 
were encompassed with doubt and horror; and the death he had 
escaped seemed to Grlaucus only to have changed its form and aug- 
mented its victims. 

LOVE AMID THE RUINS. 

' ' The sudden catastrophe which had, as it were, riven the very 
bonds of society, and left prisoner and jailer alike free, had soon rid 
Calenus of the guards to whose care the prsstor had consigned him. 
And when the darkness aud the crowd separated the priest from his 
attendants, he hastened with trembling steps toward the temple of 
his goddess. As he crept along, and ere the darkness was com- 
plete, he felt himself suddenly caught by the robe, and a voice mut- 
tered in his ear, — 

' ' ' Hist ! Calenus ! an awful hour ! ' 

'■ 'Ay! by my father's head! Who art thou! Thy face is dim, 
and thy voice is strange ! ' 

" ' Not know thy Burbo ! Fie ! ' 

" 'Gods! how the darkness gathers! Ho, ho! by yon terrific 
mountain what sudden blazes of lightning! How they dart and 
quiver! Hades is loosed on earth!' 

' ' ' Tush ! thou believest not these things, Calenus ! Now is the 
time to make our fortune!' 

" 'Ha!' 

' ' ' Listen ! Thy temple is full of gold and precious mummeries. 
Let us load ourselves with them, and then hasten to the sea and em- 
bark. None will ever ask an account of the doings of this day.' 

' ' ' Burbo, thou art right ! Hush ! and follow me into the temple. 
Who cares now, who sees now, whether thou art a priest or not? 
Follow, and we will share.' 

"In the precincts of the temple were many priests gathered 
around the altars, praying, weeping, grovelling in the dust. Im- 
postors in safety, they were not the less superstitious in danger. 
Calenus passed them, and entered the chamber yet to be seen in the 
south side of the court. Burbo followed him; the priest struck a 



The Destruction of Pompeii. 281 

light. Wine and viands strewed the table, the remains of a sacrificial 
feast. 

" 'A man who has hungered forty-eight hours,' muttered Cale- 
nus, 'has an appetite even in such a time.' He seized on the food 
and devoured it greedily. Nothing could, perhaps, be more un- 
naturally horrid than the selfish baseness of these villains ; for there 
is nothing more loathsome than the valor of avarice. Plunder and 
sacrilege while the pillars of the world tottered to and fro ! What 
an increase to the terrors of nature can be made by the vices of 
man! 

" 'Wilt thou never have done?' said Burbo, impatiently; 'thy 
face purples and thine eyes start already. ' 

" 'It is not every day one has such a right to be hungry. 
Jupiter! what sound is that"? The hissing of fiery water! What! 
does the cloud give rain as well as flame ! Ha ! what ! shrieks ! And, 
Burbo, how silent all is now ! Look forth ! ' 

RAIN OF BOILING WATER. 

' ' Amidst the other horrors, the mighty mountain now cast up 
columns of boiling water. Blent and kneaded with the half -burning 
ashes, the streams fell like seething mud over the streets in frequent 
intervals. And full, where the priests of Isis had now cowered 
around the altars, on which they had vainly sought to kindle fires 
and pour incense, one of the fiercest of those deadly torrents, min- 
gled with immense fragments of scoria, had poured its rage. Over 
the bended forms of the priests it dashed ; that cry had been of 
death; that silence had been of eternity. The ashes, the pitchy 
stream, sprinkled the altars, covered the pavement, and half con- 
cealed the quivering corpses of the priests. 

" 'They are dead,' said Burbo, terrified for the first time, and 
hurrying back into the cell. ' I thought not the danger was so near 
and fatal.' 

' ' The two wretches stood staring at each other ; you might have 
heard their hearts beat ! Calenus, the less bold by nature, but the 
more griping, recovered first. 

' ' ' We must to our task, and away ! ' he said, in a low whisper, 



282 The Destbtjction of Pompeii. 

frightened at his own voice. He stepped to the threshold, paused, 
crossed over the heated floor and his dead brethren to the sacred 
chapel, and called to Burbo to follow ; but the gladiator quaked, and 
drew back. 

" ' So much the better, ' thought Calenus ; ' the more will be my 
booty. ' Hastily he loaded himself with the more portable treasures 
of the temple, and thinking no more of his comrade, hurried from 
the sacred place. A sudden flash of lightning from the mount 
showed to Burbo, who stood motionless at the threshold, the flying 
and laden form of the priest. He took heart; he stepped forth to 
join him, when a tremendous shower of ashes fell right before his 
feet. The gladiator shrank back once more. Darkness closed him 
in. But the shower continued fast, fast; its heaps rose high and 
suffocatingly; deathly vapors steamed from them. The wretch 
gasped for breath ; he sought in despair again to fly ; the ashes had 
blocked up the threshold ; he shrieked as his feet shrank from the 
boiling fluid. How could he escape"? He could not climb to the 
open space ; nay, were he able, he could not brave its horrors. It 
were best to remain in the cell, protected, at least, from the fatal air. 
He sat down and clenched his teeth. By degrees the atmosphere 
from without— stifling and venomous— crept into the chamber. He 
could endure it no longer. His eyes, glaring round, rested on a 
sacrificial axe, which some priest had left in the chamber ; he seized 
it. With the desperate strength of his gigantic arm he attempted 
to hew his way through the walls. 

GHOSTLY PICTURES. 

"Meanwhile the streets were already thinned; the crowd had 
hastened to disperse itself under shelter ; the ashes began to fill up 
the lower parts of the town ; but here and there you heard the steps 
of fugitives cranching them wearily, or saw their pale and haggard 
faces by the blue glare of the lightning, or the more unsteady glare 
of torches, by which they endeavored to steer their steps. But 
ever and anon the boiling water, or the straggling ashes, myste- 
rious and gusty winds, rising and dying in a breath, extinguished 



The Destruction of Pompeii. 283 

these wandering lights, and with them the last living hope of those 
who bore them." 

As two other characters in the story reached the gate in the 
street that led to Herculanenm * ' they passed by the Roman sentry ; 
the lightning flashed over his livid face and polished hemlet, but his 
stern features were composed even in their awe. He remained erect 
and motionless at his post. That hour itself had not animated the 
machine of the ruthless majesty of Rome into the reasoning and 
self-acting man. There he stood, amidst the crashing elements ; he 
had not received the permission to desert his station and escape." 

Bulwer builds here on the certain fact that the skeletons of more 
than one Roman sentry were found in Pompeii at their posts. The 
description which follows has never been surpassed by any writer 
on the destruction wrought by volcanoes upon mankind. 

"The cloud, which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the 
day, had now settled into a solid and impenetrable mass. It re- 
sembled less even the thickest gloom of night in the open air than 
the close and blind darkness of some narrow room. But in pro- 
portion as the blackness gathered did the lightnings around Ve- 
suvius increase in their vivid and scorching glare. Nor was their 
horrible beauty confined to the usual hues of fire ; no rainbow ever 
rivaled their varying and prodigal dyes. Now brightly blue as 
the most azure depth of a southern sky ; now of a livid and snake- 
like green, darting restlessly to and fro, as the folds of an enor- 
mous serpent; now of a lurid and intolerable crimson, gushing 
forth through the columns of smoke, far and wide, and lighting up 
the whole city from arch to arch ; then suddenly dying into a sickly 
paleness like the ghost of their own life. 

"In the pauses of the showers you heard the rumbling of the 
earth beneath, and the groaning waves of the tortured sea ; or, lower 
still, and audible but to the watch of intensest fear, the grinding 
and hissing murmur of the escaping gases through the chasms of 
the distant mountain. Sometimes the cloud appeared to break 
from its solid mass, and, by the lightning, to assume quaint and 
vast mimicries of human or of monster shapes, striding across the 
gloom, hurtling one upon the other, and vanishing swiftly into the 
turbulent abyss of shade ; so that to the eyes and fancies of the af- 



284 The Destruction op Pompeii. 

frighted wanderers, the unsubstantial vapors were as the bodily 
forms of gigantic foes, the agents of terror and of death. 

' ' The ashes in many places were already knee deep, and the boil- 
ing showers which came from the steaming breath of the volcano 
forced their way into the houses, bearing with them a strong and 
suffocating vapor. In some places immense fragments of rock, 
hurled upon the house-roofs, bore down along the streets masses of 
confused ruin, which yet more and more, with every hour, ob- 
structed the way ; and as the day advanced the motion of the earth 
was more sensibly felt; the footing seemed to slide and creep, nor 
could chariot or litter be kept steady, even on the most level ground. 

' ' Sometimes the huger stones, striking against each other as they 
fell, broke into countless fragments, emitting sparks of fire, which 
caught whatever was combustible within their reach; and along 
the plains beyond the city the darkness was now terribly relieved, 
for several houses, and even vineyards, had been set on flames; 
and at various intervals the fires rose sullenly and fiercely against 
the solid gloom. To add to this partial relief of the darkness the 
citizens had, here and there, in the more public places, such as the 
porticos of temples and the entrances to the forum, endeavored to 
place rows of torches ; but these rarely continued long ; the showers 
and the winds extinguished them, and the sudden darkness into 
which their sudden birth was converted had something in it doubly 
terrible and doubly impressing on the impotence of human hopes, 
the lesson of despair. 

FUGITIVES AMONG THE RUINS. 

t < Frequently, by the momentary light of these torches, parties of 
fugitives encountered each other, some hurrying toward the sea, 
others flying from the sea back to the land ; for the ocean had re- 
treated rapidly from the shore ; an utter darkness lay over it, and 
upon its groaning and tossing waves the storm of cinders and rock 
fell without the protection which the streets and roofs afforded to 
the land. Wild, haggard, ghastly with supernatural fears, these 
groups encountered each other, but without the leisure to speak, 
to consult, to advise; for the showers fell now frequently, though 



The Destruction of Pompeii. 285 

not continuously, extinguishing the lights, which showed to each 
band the death-like faces of the other, and hurrying all to seek 
refuge beneath the nearest shelter. The whole elements of civiliza- 
tion were broken up. Ever and anon, by the flickering lights, you 
saw the thief hastening by the most solemn authorities of the law, 
laden with, and fearfully chuckling over, the produce of his sudden 
gains. If, in the darkness, wife was separated from husband, or 
parent from child, vain was the hope of reunion. Each hurried 
blindly and confusedly on. Nothing in all the various and com- 
plicated machinery of social life was left, save the primal law of 
self-preservation ! 

' ' Through this awful scene did the Athenian make his way, ac- 
companied by lone. 

"Advancing, as men grope for escape in a dungeon, they con- 
tinued their uncertain way. At the moments when the volcanic 
lightnings lingered over the streets they were enabled, by that 
awful light, to steer and guide their progress; yet little did the 
view it presented to them cheer or encourage their path. In parts, 
where the ashes lay dry and uncommixed with the boiling torrents 
cast upward from the mountain at capricious intervals, the surface 
of the earth presented a leprous and ghastly white. In other places 
cinder and rock lay matted in heaps, from beneath which emerged 
the half-hid limbs of some crushed and mangled fugitive. The 
groans of the dying were broken by wild shrieks of women 's terror, 
now near, now distant, which, when heard in the utter darkness, 
were rendered doubly appalling by the crushing sense of helpless- 
ness and the uncertainty of the perils around; and clear and dis- 
tinct through all were the mighty and various noises from the 
Fatal Mountain, its rushing winds, its whirling torrents, and from 
time to time the burst and roar of some more fiery and fierce ex- 
plosion. And ever as the winds swept howling along the street 
they bore sharp streams of burning dust, and such sickening and 
poisonous vapors as took away, for the instant, breath and con- 
sciousness, followed by a rapid revulsion of the arrested blood, 
and a tingling sensation of agony trembling through every nerve 
and fibre of the frame. 



286 The Desteuction of Pompeii. 

RIVALS MEET AMID THE RIOTS. 

'" 'Oh, Glaucus, my beloved! my own! take me to thy arms! 
One embrace ! let me feel thy arms around me, and in that embrace 
let me die; I can no more!' 

11 'For my sake, for my life, courage yet, sweet lone ; my life is 
linked with thine. And see— torches— this way! Lo! how they 
brave the wind ! Ha ! they live through the storm, doubtless fugi- 
tives to the sea ! we will join them. ' 

"As if to aid and reanimate the lovers, the winds and showers 
came to a sudden pause; the atmosphere was profoundly still, the 
mountain seemed at rest, gathering, perhaps, fresh fury for its next 
burst; the torch-bearers moved quickly on. 'We are nearing the 
sea,' said, in a calm voice, the person at their head. 'Liberty and 
wealth to each slave who survives this day ! Courage ! I tell you 
that the gods themselves have assured me of deliverance ! On ! ' 

' ' Redly and steadily the torches flashed full on the eyes of Glau- 
cus and lone, who lay trembling and exhausted on his bosom. Sev- 
eral slaves were bearing, by the light, panniers and coffers, heavily 
laden; in front of them, a drawn sword in his hand, towered the 
lofty form of Arbaces. 

" 'By my fathers!' cried the Egyptian, 'Fate smiles upon me 
even through these horrors, and, amidst the dreadest aspects of woe 
and death, bodes me happiness and love. Away, Greek! I claim 
my ward, lone ! ' 

' ' ' Traitor and murderer ! ' cried Glaucus, glaring upon his foe, 
'Nemesis hath guided thee to my revenge— a just sacrifice to the 
shades of Hades, that now seemed loosed on earth! Approach, 
touch but the hand of lone, and thy weapon shall be as a reed ; I 
will tear thee limb from limb!' 

"Suddenly, as he spoke, the place became lighted with an in- 
tense and lurid glow. Bright and gigantic through the darkness, 
which closed around it like the walls of hell, the mountain shone— a 
pile of fire ! Its summit seemed riven in two ; or, rather, above its 
surface there seemed to rise two monster shapes, each confronting 
each, as Demons contending for a "World. These were of one deep 
blood-red hue of fire, which lighted up the whole atmosphere far 



The Destruction of Pompeii. 287 

and wide ; but below the nether part of the mountain was still dark 
and shrouded, save in three places, adown which flowed serpentine 
and irregular rivers of the molten lava. Darkly red through the 
profound gloom of their hanks they flowed slowly on, as toward 
the devoted city. Over the broadest there seemed to spring a 
cragged and stupendous arch, from which, as from the jaws of hell, 
gushed the sources of the sudden Phlegethon; and through the 
stilled air was heard the rattling of the fragments of rock, hurtling 
one upon another as they were borne down the fiery cataracts, dark- 
ening for one instant the spot where they fell, and suffused the 
next in the burnished hues of the flood along which they floated! 

' ' The slaves shrieked aloud, and, cowering, hid their faces. The 
Egyptian himself stood transfixed to the spot, the glow lighting up 
his commanding features and jewelled robes. High behind him 
rose a tall column that supported the bronze statue of Augustus; 
and the imperial image seemed changed to a shape of fire ! 

"With his left hand circled round the form of lone, with his 
right arm raised in menace, and grasping the stilus which was to 
have been his weapon in the arena, and which he still fortunately 
bore about him, with his brow knit, his lips apart, the wrath and 
menace of human passions arrested as b}^ a charm upon his fea- 
tures, Glaucus fronted the Egyptian. 

THE FATES DECIDE. 

"Arbaces turned his eyes from the mountain; they rested on 
the form of Glaucus ! He paused a moment. ' Why, ' he muttered, 
'should I hesitate? Did not the stars foretell the only crisis of 
imminent peril to which I was subjected? Is not that peril past?' 

" 'The soul,' cried he, 'can brave the wreck of worlds and the 
wrath of imaginary gods ! By that soul will I conquer to the last ! 
Advance, slaves! Athenian, resist me and thy blood be on thine 
own head ! Thus, then, I regain lone ! ' 

' ' He advanced one step ; it was his last on earth ! The ground 
shook beneath him with a convulsion that cast all around upon its 
surface. A simultaneous crash resounded through the city, as 
down toppled many a roof and pillar ! The lightning, as if caught 



288 The Destruction of Pompeii. 

by the metal, lingered an instant on the Imperial Statue, then shiv- 
ered bronze and column! Down fell the ruin, echoing along the 
street, and riving the solid pavement where it crashed ! The proph- 
ecy of the stars was fulfilled. 

"The sound, the shock, stunned the Athenian for several mo- 
ments. When he recovered the light still illumined the scene, the 
earth still slid and trembled beneath! lone lay senseless on the 
ground ; but he saw her not yet ; his eyes were fixed upon a ghastly 
face that seemed to emerge, without limbs or trunk, from the huge 
fragments of the shattered column, a face of unutterable pain, 
agony, and despair ! The eyes shut and opened rapidly, as if sense 
were not yet fled ; the lips quivered and grinned ; then sudden still- 
ness and darkness fell over the features, yet retaining that aspect 
of horror never to be forgotten ! 

' ' Glaucus turned in gratitude but in awe, caught lone once more 
in his arms, and fled along the street, that was yet intensely lumin- 
ous. But suddenly a duller shade fell over the air. Instinctively 
he turned to the mountain, and behold! one of the two gigantic 
crests, into which the summit had been divided, rocked and wavered 
to and fro ; and then, with a sound, the mightiness of which no lan- 
guage can describe, it fell from its burning base and rushed, an 
avalanche of fire, down the sides of the mountain ! At the same in- 
stant gushed forth a volume of blackest smoke, rolling on over air, 
sea, and earth. 

"Another— and another— and another shower of ashes far more 
profuse than before, scattered fresh desolation along the streets. 
Darkness once more wrapped them as a veil ; and Glaucus, his bold 
heart at last quelled and despairing, sank beneath the cover of an 
arch and, clasping lone to his heart— a bride on that couch of ruin 
—resigned himself to die. 

* ' The sudden illumination, the bursts of the floods of lava, and 
the earthquake, which we have already described, chanced when 
Sallust and his party had just gained the direct path leading from 
the city to the port; and here they were arrested by an immense 
crowd, more than half the population of the city. They spread 
along the field without the walls, thousands upon thousands, uncer- 
tain whither to fly. The sea had retired far from shore ; and they 



The Destruction oe Pompeii. 289 

who had fled to it had been so terrified by the agitation and preter- 
natural shrinking of the element, the gasping forms of the uncouth 
sea things which the waves had left upon the sand, and by the 
sound of the huge stones cast from the mountain into the deep, that 
they had returned again to the land, as presenting the less frightful 
aspect of the two. Thus the two streams of human beings, the one 
seaward, the other from the sea, had met together, feeling a sad 
comfort in numbers, arrested in despair and doubt. 

"After many pauses and incredible perseverance, the two lov- 
ers, discovered and guided by the blind girl Nydia, gained the sea, 
and joined a group who, bolder than the rest, resolved to hazard 
any peril rather than continue in such a scene. In darkness they 
put forth to sea ; but, as they cleared the land and caught new as- 
pects of the mountain, its channels of molten fire threw a partial 
redness over the waves. 

"Utterly exhausted and worn out, lone slept on the breast of 
Grlancus, and Nydia lay at his feet. Meanwhile the showers of dust 
and ashes, still borne aloft, fell into the waves and scattered their 
snows over the deck. Far and wide, borne by the winds, those 
showers descended upon the remotest climes, startling even the 
swarthy African and whirled along the antique soil of Syria and of 
Egypt." 

MOENING AFTER DESOLATION. 

Of the next morning Bulwer writes: "Light was about to re- 
sume her reign. Yet, still, dark and massive in the distance, lay 
the broken fragments of the destroying cloud, from which red 
streaks, burning dimlier and more dim, betrayed the yet rolling 
fires of the mountain of the "Scorched Fields." The white walls 
and gleaming columns that had adorned the lovely coasts were no 
more. Sullen and dull were the shores so lately crested by the 
cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The darlings of the Deep 
were snatched from her embrace ! Century after century shall the 
mighty Mother stretch forth her azure arms and know them not, 
moaning round the sepulchres of the Lost!" 



290 The Destkuction of Pompeii. 

AFTER SEVENTEEN CENTURIES. 

In his closing paragraphs the novelist bridges the gap of sev- 
enteen centuries which elapsed between the last hour of Pompeii 
and the present day. "Nearly seventeen centuries," writes he, 
"had rolled away when the city of Pompeii was disinterred from 
its silent tomb, all vivid with undimmed hues ; its walls fresh as if 
painted yesterday ; not a hue faded on the rich mosaic of its floors ; 
in its forum the half-finished columns as left by the workman's 
hand in its gardens the sacrificial tripod; in its halls the chest of 
treasure ; in its baths the strigil ; in its theaters the counter of ad- 
mission; in its saloons the furniture and the lamp; in its triclinia 
the fragments of the last feast; in its cubicula the perfumes and the 
rouge of faded beauty; and everywhere the bones and skel- 
etons of those who once moved the springs of that minute yet gor- 
geous machine of luxury and of life ! 

"In the h6use of Diomed, in the subterranean vaults, twenty 
skeletons (one of a babe) were discovered in one spot by the door, 
covered by a fine ashen dust, that had evidently been wafted slowly 
through the apertures until it had filled the whole space. There 
were jewels and coins, candelabra for unavailing light, and wine 
hardened in the amphorse for a prolongation of agonized life. The 
sand, consolidated by damps, had taken the forms of the skeletons 
as in a cast, and the traveler may yet see the impression of a fe- 
male neck and bosom of young and round proportions— a trace of 
the fated Julia ! It seems to the inquirer as if the air had been grad- 
ually changed into a sulphurous vapor; the inmates of the vaults 
had rushed to the door to find it closed and blocked up by the 
scoria without, and in their attempts to force it had been suffocated 
with the atmosphere. 

"In the garden was found a skeleton with a key by its bony 
hand, and near it a bag of coins. This is believed to have been the 
master of the house— the unfortunate Diomed, who had probably 
sought to escape by the garden and been destroyed either by the 
vapors or some fragment of stone. Beside some silver vases lay an- 
other skeleton, probably of a slave. 

"The houses of Sallust and of Pansa, the Temple of Isis, with 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

BURNING THE DEAD BODIES AT ST. PIERRE. 

In many cases the bodies were placed in piles and burned, but when they were 

found to be too decomposed to move, they were covered with straw, 

saturated with kerosene and then burned each by itself. 




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The Destruction op Pompeii. 293 

the juggling concealments behind the statues— the lurking place of 
its holy oracles— are now bared to the gaze of the curious. In one 
of the chambers of that temple was found a huge skeleton with an 
axe beside it; two walls had been pierced by the axe; the victim 
could penetrate no farther. In the midst of the city was found 
another skeleton, by the side of which was a heap of coins, and 
many of the mystic ornaments of the fane of Isis. Death had 
fallen upon him in his avarice, and Calenus perished simultaneous- 
ly with Burbo ! As the excavators cleared on through the mass of 
ruin, they found the skeleton of a man literally severed in two by 
a prostrate column ; the skull was of so striking a conformation, so 
boldly marked in its intellectual as well as its worse physical de- 
velopments, that it has excited the constant speculation of every 
itinerant believer in the theories of Spurzheim who has gazed upon 
that ruined palace of the mind. Still, after the lapse of ages, the 
traveler may survey that airy hall, within whose cunning galleries 
and elaborate chambers once thought, reasoned, dreamed, and 
sinned the soul of Arbaces the Egyptian. 

"Viewing the various witnesses of a social system which has 
passed from the world forever— a stranger, from that remote bar- 
barian Isle which the Imperial Eoman shivered when he named, 
paused amidst the delights of the soft Campania and composed this 
history ! ' ' 



CHAPTER XVI. 
MODERN ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS. 

Three Thousand People Killed in 1631 — Connection Between Earthquakes and 
Volcanoes — The Eruption of 1779 a Magnificent Display — Modern Erup- 
tions — Pictures Showing How "Vesuvius Sweated Fire." 

Vesuvius is about eight miles from Naples, whose bay it over- 
looks, at the eastern extremity of a chain extending to the Island 
of Ischia, which was rent by an earthquake in March, 1881, and 
again in July, 1883. The whole Gulf of Naples was probably at 
one time a crater far vaster than any now upon the earth, the east- 
ern end of a great rent in the earth 's crust, when the internal heat 
of the earth was far greater than it now is. To conceive it so car- 
ries the mind back to years when the planet was young. Of this 
great ancient crater Etna was the western extremity and Strom- 
boli in the center. Vesuvius itself seems not to have been the chief 
rent until 79 A. D., when Pompeii was destroyed and the ancient 
crater of Mount Somma, on the east and north, was separated from 
the present cone by a valley seven hundred feet wide. The base of 
the mountain is over thirty miles in circumference, is 2,300 feet 
to the base of the cone, and the cone itself is 1,900 feet in height. 
The top is cut off some two thousand feet in diameter with a crater 
five hundred feet deep. 

The Vesuvius of the ancients was a cone with its top cut off, 
having a base of eight or nine miles and a height of four thousand 
feet. Upon its summit was a depressed plain three miles in diam- 
eter. Only seven years before the eruption of 79 the gladiator, 
Spartacus, took refuge on this flat mountain-top, and was there be- 
sieged by the Romans. Vesuvius was never suspected of being a 
volcano. Its sides were covered with fields and vines, its crater 
overgrown with wild grapes. The great historic eruption, described 
in a previous chapter, formed the present crater, and in this the 
modern cone has been built up. The mountain has undergone great 

294 



Modern Eruptions of Vesuvius. 295 

changes during the last century and a half, its bulk and height 
being increased by its own ejections, even as an ant-hill grows. 

DIFFERENT KINDS OF LAVA. 

Some of its lavas, being very liquid, have flowed rapidly, and 
.almost like water, for miles beyond its base. Others, much thicker 
than molasses, have advanced only an inch or two a day for several 
years. When the lava is slow in moving, as in 1858, it becomes 
wrinkled and folded; is coiled like ropes or twisted like molasses 
candy, the chilled surface being crumpled by the heaving mass 
below. When the lava rolls swiftly, as in 1872, it is broken into 
enormous, rough, cindery ridges, with much pouring forth of the 
imprisoned and pressing steam. Occasionally, as in 1660, ashes 
and smoke without lava have been ejected. 

CONNECTION BETWEEN EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES, 

The frequent connection existing between earthquakes and vol- 
canoes is shown by the history of Vesuvius and Etna. The earth- 
quake of Melfi preceded the grand eruption of Etna in 1852 ; the 
earthquake of Basilicato, December, 1857, preceded the eruption 
of Vesuvius in 1858. So the Calabrian earthquakes preceded the 
eruptions of 1868 and 1871-72. 

THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE KILLED IN 1631. 

The principal eruptions of Vesuvius since the one that buried 
Pompeii have all occurred in the last two hundred and seventy 
years. The one of 1631 came on like the ancient one, suddenly and 
unexpectedly. It began on the 16th of December and continued 
till the next month. During a fortnight the cone lost very much 
of its height. The flow, like that from a guttering candle on an 
immense scale, nearly destroyed Torre dell' Anminziata, Torre del 
Greco, Resina and Portici on the southwest slope. Mud, lava and 
torrents of boiling water from the melted snow killed three thou- 
sand persons. The Italian town of Resina, thus devastated, was 
built on the site of Herculaneum, destroyed of old. 



296 Modern Eruptions of Vesuvius. 

The eruption of 1779 was very grand. Stones were projected 
several thousand feet into the clouds of white vapor, with large 
masses of molten rock and columns of fiery matters. In June, 
1794, Torre del Greco was again destroyed by lava, which flowed 
to the bay in a stream nearly a quarter of a mile wide and fifteen 
feet thick. The eruption of October, 1822, continued for nearly 
a month, rupturing the top of the cone and forming a crater three 
miles in circumference and about a thousand feet deep. In May, 
1855, this symmetrical cone was again blown asunder. The flow 
continued twenty-seven days, and was very destructive to cultivated 
fields. In May, 1858, the Hermitage was nearly surrounded. In 
18G1 the eruption was very violent, but was of only seven hours' 
duration. It overwhelmed Torre del Greco, but on account of the 
intense cold the lava fortunately cooled very rapidly and was 
checked. In November, 1867, a cone about seventy feet in diam- 
eter, which had formed within the large crater in two years, poured 
out a great amount of lava. Beside the main stream from the great 
crater there was a flow from an outside orifice of twenty feet iu 
diameter and twenty- five feet wide, rapidly reaching the bottom of 
the mountain. With loud roars and heavy shocks, through the 
glowing vapor, huge stones were sent many hundred feet high every 
few seconds. This eruption continued seven weeks and is regarded 
as one of the great ones. 

The outbreak of April 24, 1872, had been preceded for several 
months by slight premonitory symptoms. Its greatest intensity 
was from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-sixth, after which it 
gradually diminished. The volcano had been quiet from 1868 until 
December, 1870, but early in 1871 Professor Luigi Palmieri estab- 
lished in the observatory, two thousand and eighty feet above the 
sea, upon the mountain, noted in quietude, the seismograph, an 
instrument with which, as it were, he counted the mountain's pulse. 
He prophesied an outburst. Cones formed during all that year 
and in the early months of 1872. Crowds of people from Naples as- 
cended the mountain nightly to view the splendid fireworks of 
these forming cones. Several of these persons were buried by a 
flow of lava on April 26, from a rent in a cone on the northwest 
side. The Observatory was between two fiery torrents. The heat 



Modern Eruptions of Vesuvius. 297 

was so intense that the window glass cracked and the furniture of 
the room scorched. The professor and his assistant went calmly 
on with their work, calculated the rate of the flow, and on the 
twenty-seventh, having seen twenty million tons of matter ejected 
and watched the gigantic serpents of fire gliding from the moun- 
tain, they calculated that twenty-four hours more of that would 
send the serpents' heads to the walls of Naples. 

On the 27th the flow greatly lessened. Much of it covered the 
lava of 1868, but the damage done to fields and crops was estimated 
at three-quarters of a million dollars. The bottom of the crater 
was broken up, and the sides were fissured in all directions. Pro- 
fessor Palmieri said, "Vesuvius sweated fire." Thanks to him 
this eruption was the best observed that has ever occurred. Pic- 
tures taken by the instantaneous process show enormous volumes 
of globular, vaporous masses, with numerous fragments thrown 
several thousand feet in the air. Many of these went as far as the 
Observatory. Three principal fiery floods rushed down the moun- 
tain and far beyond its base, overwhelming San Sebastian, Massa 
and other hamlets, and many isolated houses. The streams gave off 
large clouds of steam, which formed miniature volcanoes in their 
course ; the earth tremors and vibrations were constant, with vivid 
volcanic lightning from the intense electrical excitement of the up- 
rising column, and heavy rains from the condensation of the im- 
mense amounts of watery vapor. The streets of Naples were cov- 
ered several inches deep with black sand, and the flow was at least 
three-fifths of a mile wide at its lower portion. The people of 
Naples and the neighboring villages fled to the country with their 
movable valuables, fearing a catastrophe like that so vividly de- 
scribed by Bulwer in the extracts we have given from "The Last 
Days of Pompeii." 

Beneath the column, which towered four miles above his head 
and spread out like a pine tree, between vast rivers of fire, far up 
on the mountain side, stood the scientist, Palmieri, calculating the 
flow, reproducing and preserving the terrific scene, a splendid type 
of the clear, unterrified, because unsuperstitious, brain of man. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA. 

Until Recently Krakatoa Almost Unknown — First Signs of Eruption — Air 
Filled with Pine Dust and Air Waves Encircle the Earth — Remarkable 
Phenomenon in 1883 — Terrific Eruption in That Year — Most Tremendous 
Explosion Ever Known. 

We preface the story of Krakatoa by a recent account of it by 
the eminent Sir Robert Ball. 

"The extraordinary vehemence that a volcanic eruption some- 
times attains, ' ' says he, ' ' may be specifically illustrated by the case 
of the great eruption at Krakatoa. It is indeed believed that in the 
annals of the earth there has been no record of a volcanic eruption 
so vast as that which bears the name of this little island in the far 
Eastern seas, 10,000 miles from our shores. 

KRAKATOA ALMOST UNKNOWN. 

"Until the year 1883 few ever heard of Krakatoa. It was un- 
known to fame as are hundreds of other gems of glorious vegetation 
set in tropical waters. It was not inhabited, but the natives from 
the surrounding shores of Sumatra and Java used occasionally to 
draw their canoes upon its beach while they roamed through its 
jungles in search of the wild fruits that abounded there. 

"In 1883 Krakatoa suddenly sprang into notoriety. Insignif- 
icant though it had seemed hitherto, the little island was soon to 
compel, by its tones of thunder, the whole world to pay instant at- 
tention. It was to become the scene of a volcanic outbreak so ap- 
palling that it is destined to be remembered throughout the ages. 

FIRST SIGNS OF ERUPTION. 

"In the spring of that year there were symptoms that the vol- 
canic powers in Krakatoa were once more about to awake from 
their slumbers, that had endured for many generations. Notable 

298 



The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 299 

warnings were given. Earthquakes were felt and deep rumblings 
proceeded from the earth, showing that some disturbance was in 
preparation and that the old volcano was again to burst forth after 
its long period of rest. 

"At first the eruption did not threaten to be serious, in fact, the 
good people of Batavia, so far from being terrified at what was 
passing in Krakatoa, thought the display was such an attraction 
that they chartered a steamer and went forth for a pleasant picnic 
to the island. 

"With cautious steps the more venturesome of the excursion 
party clambered up the sides of the volcano, guided by the sounds 
which were issuing from its summit. There they beheld a vast col- 
umn of steam pouring forth with terrific noise from an opening 
about thirty yards in width. 

"As the summer advanced the vigor of Krakatoa steadily in- 
creased. The noises became more and more vehement. They were 
presently audible on shores ten miles distant and then twenty miles 
distant; and still these noises waxed louder and louder, until the 
great thunders of the volcano, so rapidly developing, astonished in- 
habitants that dwelt over an area at least as large as Great Britain., 
and there were other symptoms of the approaching catastrophe. 

AIR FILLED WITH FINE DUST. 

"With each successive convulsion a quantity of fine dust was 
projected aloft into the clouds. The wind could not carry this dust 
away as rapidly as it was hurled upward by Krakatoa and the at- 
mosphere became heavily charged with the suspended particles. A 
pall of darkness thus hung over the adjoining seas and islands. 
Such was the thickness and the density of the atmospheric volumes 
of Krakatoa dust that for a hundred miles around the darkness of 
midnight prevailed at midday. 

' ' This supreme effort it was which produced the mightiest noise 
that, so far as can be ascertained, has ever been heard on this globe. 
It must have been indeed a loud noise which could travel from Kra- 
katoa and preserve vehemence over so great a distance, but we 
should form an inadequate conception of the energy of the Kra- 



300 The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 

katoa if we thought that its sounds were heard by those merely a 
hundred miles off. This would be little indeed compared with what 
is recorded on testimonies which it is impossible to doubt. 

"Westward from Krakatoa stretches the wide expanse of the 
Indian Ocean. On the opposite side from the Straits of Sunda 
lies the Island of Rodriguez, the distance from Krakatoa being 
almost 3,000 miles. It has been proved by evidence which can- 
not be doubted that the thunders of the great volcano attracted the 
attention of an intelligent coast guard on Rodriguez, who carefully 
noted the character of the sounds and the time of their occurrence. 
He had heard them just four hours after the actual explosion, for 
this is the time the sound occupied on its journey! 

"Among the many other incidents connected with this explo- 
sion I may specially mention the wonderful system of divergent 
ripples that started in the atmosphere from the point at which the 
eruption took place. I have called them ripples from the obvious 
resemblance which they bear to the circular expanding ripples pro- 
duced by raindrops which fall upon the still surface of the water, 
but it would be more correct to say that these were a series of great 
undulations which started from Krakatoa and spread forth in ever 
enlarging circles through our atmosphere. 

AIE WAVES ENCIRCLE EARTH. 

* ' The initial impetus was so tremendous that these waves spread 
for hundreds and thousands of miles. They diverged, in 
fact, until they put a mighty girdle round the earth, on a great cir- 
cle, of which Krakatoa was the pole. The atmospheric waves, 
with the whole earth now well in their grasp, advanced into the 
opposite hemisphere. In their progress they had necessarily to 
form gradually contracting circles, until at last they converged to 
a point in Central America at the opposite point of the diameter 
of our earth, 10,000 miles from Krakatoa. 

' ' Thus the waves completely embraced the earth ; every part of 
our atmosphere had been set into a tingle by the great eruption. 
In Great Britain the waves passed over our heads; the air in our 
streets, the air in our houses, trembled from the volcanic impulse. 



The Teekible Eruption of Keakatoa. 301 

The oxygen supplying our lungs was responding also to the su- 
preme convulsion that took place 10,000 miles away." 

The explosion thus described by Sir Robert Ball set in motion 
air waves that traveled around the earth four times one way and 
three times the other. Every self-recording barometer on the globe 
was disturbed no less than seven times. These air waves traveled 
around the earth once in about thirty-six hours at the rate of 700 
miles an hour, which is somewhat slower than sound waves travel. 

The sound waves carried the notes of the explosion over dis- 
tances far beyond anything else known in human experience of 
sound transmission. 

SOUNDS HEARD FAR OFF. 

All over Sumatra and Java the sounds were distinctly heard, 
which is as if all the people in Chicago should hear an explosion in 
Omaha. At St. Lucia Bay, 1,116 miles distant, the noise of the 
eruption was heard. It was heard at Tavoy, 1,478 miles distant; 
at Perth, 1,902 miles away ; at Alice Springs, 2,233 miles distant ; 
at Diego Garcia, 2,267 miles away ; at Rodriguez, 2,968 miles from 
Krakatoa. 

The sound of the Krakatoa explosion was heard over a zone cov- 
ering one-thirteenth of the earth's surface. 

It is estimated that ash and fragments from the cone of Kraka- 
toa were lifted 50,000 feet in air, and that the finer particles of 
pumice were a year in reaching the earth again. With these ash 
layers drifting with the winds, the sunsets of that year were made 
remarkably brilliant and are remembered by most people old 
enough at the time to be attracted to the phenomenon. 

Not only in this dust was the eruption made spectacular but ves- 
sels sailing the East Indian seas thereafter encountered such vast 
areas of floating pumice stone that navigation was seriously im- 
peded. Gradually, however, this stone became waterlogged and 
sank. Every vestige of life on that and neighboring islands was 
destroyed. 

One of the noteworthy facts connected with the destructive 
upheaval of Krakatoa was that the humble peak, less than 3,000 



302 The Terrible Eruption oe Keakatoa. 

feet in height, had attracted no special attention among scientists 
because of the region in which it stood. It was located in the midst 
of about fifty towering volcanic mountains, some of them 12,000 
feet high, and most of them in almost chronic disturbance. In the 
midst of these surroundings little Krakatoa was overlooked until 
almost ten years ago it broke out with terrible fury and wrought 
fearful loss of life and destruction of property. 

For the first few hours terrific explosions came every few min- 
utes. The sea was driven back, and at every outburst black col- 
umns of smoke, dust and lava were sent miles into the air. As 
the hours passed the explosions became more and more frequent. 
The concussions shattered stone walls, upset lamps, and created 
general havoc hundreds of miles away. The explosions were 
heard over a sound zone covering one-thirteenth of the earth's sur- 
face. All the towns and villages on the shores of Java and Su- 
matra bordering the straits were destroyed. The average height 
of the tidal wave which struck the shores of Java and Sumatra 
was fifty feet, and at many places it was much higher. The man- 
of-war Berouw, lying off the Sumatra shore, was carried a mile 
and three-quarters inland up a valley and left in a forest thirty 
feet above sea level. The sea waves were recorded at Colombo, 
1,760 miles distant; at Bombay, 2,700 miles distant; at Cape Horn, 
5,000 miles away. They traveled 350 miles an hour and their 
average height as shown by the gauges was from six to eighteen 
inches. A large part of the Indian Ocean was showered with lava 
dust and lava mud to a depth of several inches. This applies to 
an area of about half a million square miles. The mass of mud, 
ashes and lava dust blown out of Krakatoa would have formed a 
solid cube a mile and a quarter in each direction. That is four or 
five times more than Bandaisan threw out. In the immediate vi- 
cinity of Krakatoa the sea was so thick with fallen lava dust that 
vessels pushed through it as though plodding through a field of 
broken ice. The whole northern portion of the island, with an 
area of six square miles, and with an average height of 700 feet 
above sea level, was submerged, and remains so to-day under 150 
fathoms of water. Two new islands thrust up their heads, and the 
^Itde configuration of the channel was changed. 



The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 303 

A REMARKABLE PHENOMENON. 

The observers say that a great quantity of the finer dust pro- 
jected into the air remained in suspension there for over a year, 
and by a refraction of light caused the red and purple sunsets, the 
blue moons, and the copper suns that were seen all over the world 
from September, 1883, to the close of 1884. 

From this it will be seen that though the number of lives lost 
is about the same, Krakatoa gave the earth itself a shock beside 
which the affair of Pelee is a trifle. No one lived on Krakatoa, no 
ships touched there. The island had a peak 3,000 feet high, a 
petty thing alongside of the forty-nine towering volcanoes of near- 
by Java, some 12,000 feet high. Science had never paid attention 
to Krakatoa. 

It was too insignificant in appearance. Science might have as- 
certained that the crater of the island was largely submerged and 
included not only Krakatoa, but several other islands in the strait, 
but even science is stupid at times. As a matter of fact once, ages 
ago, Krakatoa was a gigantic mountain joining Java and Su- 
matra, and it had enormous height and a base girth of twenty-five 
•miles. That was "the real volcano Krakatoa, after the work of its 
building up with lava layers had been completed, and before the 
phase of its self-destruction had begun." 

But the pride of Krakatoa overcame her judgment. Swollen 
beyond control, she proceeded to tear herself to pieces, blowing her 
head and shoulders off, scattering her body far and wide, and 
finally leaving herself only a basal wreck to rest upon, and that 
half under water. Still, after all this occurred, so long ago that 
man forgot to remember it, Krakatoa remained the most danger- 
ous volcanic focus on the surface of the earth. 

It was nearly 200 years before Krakatoa spoke again. On 
Sunday morning, May 20, 1883, she began to rouse herself, just as 
Pelee did, with ample warning to the world to get out from under. 
And the world, as at Martinique, smiled in egotistical wisdom 
and would not be warned. 

Krakatoa first sent up a gush of steam and ashes and gave that 
roar which was heard at Batavia. Then followed three months of 



304 The Terrible Eruption op Krakatoa. 

silence. But during these three months a second and third crater 
opened; there were white hot chasms below the level of the sea, 
sending up to the waves their hissing challenge. After a time mil- 
lions of tons of water surged downwards and the battle was on. 
This was Sunday afternoon, August 26, 1883. For a few hours 
the earth fires and sea water produced terrific explosions. Black 
columns were sent miles into the air, carrying with them steam, 
smoke, ash and pumice. As night came on an eye-witness has de- 
scribed the scene: 

"Krakatoa was a terrifying glory. From a distance of forty 
miles it looked like an immense wall, with bursts of forked light- 
ning darting through it, and blazing serpents playing over it. 
These bursts of brilliancy were the regular uncoverings of the 
angry fires. As the hours passed the sea gained an advantage 
through fresh breaks in the crater walls that offered new points 
of attack. 

"The explosions became more and more frequent until about 
midnight they sounded to the people of Batavia and Buitentong 
like one continuous roar, the noise making it impossible for the 
inhabitants of these places to sleep. The concussion shattered 
stone walls, upset lamps, tore gas meters from their fixings. And 
yet Batavia is as far from Krakatoa as London is from Ports- 
mouth. ' ' 

FINE ELECTRIC DISPLAY. 

Through all that Sunday night electricity did wonderful things 
in the heavens. Sailors saw balls of fire resting on the mastheads 
of their ships and lightning struck the mainmasts. The climax 
came at 10 o'clock the next morning. What caused the frightful 
shock is yet a problem. Did the earth open in one gigantic fissure 
and call the sea down for a final desperate encounter, or was there 
a sudden subsidence of strata to fill in the hollows lef.t by what had 
been ejected? The question has not been answered. 

' ' But there came an explosion so loud, so violent, and with such 
far-reaching effects, that it made what had gone before seem as 
child's play in comparison, and made all other explosions known 
to the earth in historic times dwindle into insignificance." 



The Teeeible Eeuption of Keakatoa. 305 

THE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA IN 1883 AND THE DESTRUCTION OF 
THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND SOULS. 

During the closing days of the month of August, 1883, occurred 
a terrible subterranean convulsion— one which in its destructive 
results to life and property and in the startling character of the 
world-wide effects to which it gave rise, is perhaps without a par- 
allel in historic times. In that eruption 36,000 people lost their 
lives. 

The towns and villages along the shores of the Sunda Strait 
between the Islands of Java and Sumatra, were, during the crisis 
of the eruption, enveloped in a terrible darkness, which lasted for 
many hours, and while thus obscured were overwhelmed by a suc- 
cession of great sea waves. For some time after the eruption 
Sunda Strait was almost impassable; lighthouses had been swept 
away; all the old familiar landmarks on the shores were obscured 
by a vast deposit of volcanic dust ; the sea itself was encumbered 
with enorrnous masses of floating pumice, in many cases of such 
thickness that no vessel could force its way through them, and for 
months after the eruption one of the principal channels was ob- 
structed by two new islands which had arisen in its midst. The 
center of the volcanic disturbance was the Island of Krakatoa. 
The efforts of the Dutch Indian Government were at once directed 
to taking measures for the safety and relief of the survivors of 
the terrible catastrophe, and for restoring the navigation of the 
great marine highway, and a man-of-war was dispatched to the 
Strait to visit the posts and penetrate as far as possible into the 
great bays on both sides of the Strait. The Sunda Strait, con- 
necting as it does the China Sea with the Indian Ocean, is one of 
the most important commercial highways on the globe, and many 
hundreds of vessels pass through it every year. During the erup- 
tion a number of ships passed near enough to see it and far enough 
to escape destruction. 

BEGAN WITH RAIN OF DUST. 

An eruption of Krakatoa began on the 30th of May, 1883, 
bursting out with somewhat sudden violence and carrving a rain 



306 The Teerible Eruption of Krakatoa. 

of volcanic dust to various points along the shores of Java and 
Sumatra. After this sudden outburst there was a marked and 
rapid decline in violence, and then a gradual increase till June 
24th, when a second crater had opened in the center of the island. 
The eruptive force still increasing, a third crater made its ap- 
pearance, and innumerable smaller vents were originated all over 
the surface of the filled-up crater of the great ancient volcano. 
From this time the activity constantly increased, till its grand cul- 
mination on the 27th of August. 

REACHES THE VESUVIAN STAGE. 

On the afternoon of the 26th of August it was evident that the 
long-continued moderate eruptions of Krakatoa had passed into 
the paroxysmal or Vesuvian stage. At numerous small towns and 
villages along the Javan and Sumatran coasts of the Strait of 
Sunda, and in the five lighthouses, two of which were destroyed, 
were European officials. Many of them fled during the terrible 
night of the 26th of August, and others were drowned by the 
great sea waves, similar to the fatal wave at Lisbon. These waves 
submerged all the coast towns on the morning of the 27th. Only 
three European ships which were actually in the Strait of Sunda 
during that night of horrors escaped destruction. One of the 
survivors was the British ship Charles Bal, which was within a 
dozen miles of the volcano. A Batavian steamship passed thirty 
miles north of Krakatoa and, being unable during the storm which 
was raging to reach the pier at the port of Telok Belong, steamed 
out into the bay and anchored. This saved her from being 
stranded by the great sea waves which next morning destroyed 
many other ships. In the rush of these waves over the land all 
vessels near the shore were stranded, the towns and villages along 
the coast devastated, two of the lighthouses swept away, and the 
lives of 36,380 of the inhabitants were sacrificed. 

AWFUL NOISES OF THE NIGHT. 

The detonations caused by the explosive action grew loud 
enough by one o 'clock of the 26th to be heard at Batavia, 100 Eng- 



The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 307 

lish miles from Krakatoa. Captain Thompson of the Medea, 
seventy-six miles from the volcano, saw at 2 o 'clock ' ' a black mass 
rising up like smoke in clouds" to an altitude which has been es- 
timated to have been seventeen miles in the air. Vesuvius in 1872 
sent up a column of steam and dust only four or five miles. The 
detonations came about every ten minutes. By three o'clock they 
were grown so loud as to be heard at Bandong, 150 miles away, 
and at five they had become so tremendous that they were heard 
all over the Island of Java. At Batavia they were, during the 
whole night, so violent that no one could sleep, the noise being like 
the discharge of artillery close at hand. To the men in vessels 
the sky presented a most terrible appearance, the dense mass of 
clouds being covered with a murky tinge, with fierce flashes of 
lightning. The dust clouds and dense vapor rendered it intensely 
dark, the whole scene lighted up from time to time by lurid light- 
ning, and at one time the solid cloud above the mountain looked 
like an immense pine tree, with stem and branches formed of vol- 
canic lightning. The air was loaded with fine ashes and there 
was a strong sulphurous smell, the vessels passed through a rain 
of mud which formed on the decks at the rate of six inches in ten 
minutes. Chains of fire ascended between volcano and sky, while 
on the southwest side of the crater there was a continuous roll of 
enormous balls of white fire. 

MOST TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION EVER KNOWN. 

Up to late in the afternoon of the 26th the eruption of Krakatoa 
was similar to other great eruptions, and nothing had occurred 
which resulted in great loss of human life. At that time, however, 
the volcano had blown away its walls till the process could go no 
further without the waters of the ocean rushing into the heated 
mass of lava from which the eruption was taking place. This 
water did rush in, and in the end gave rise to a series of tremen- 
dous explosions. Of these the third occurring at 10 o'clock on 
the morning of the 27th of August annihilated the whole of the 
northern and lower portions of the island of Krakatoa with the 
exception of a bank of pumice and a rock of solid pitch stone ten 



308 The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 

yards square, which was left standing above the ocean with deep 
water all around it. At the same time a large portion of the north- 
ern part of the basaltic cone of Rakata was destroyed and a ver- 
tical cliff formed. On the spot where Krakatoa had reached 1,400 
feet into the air the sea rolled 1,000 feet deep. Two-thirds of the 
original island had blown up. 

HEAED 3,000 MILES AWAY. 

The sound of these explosions was heard at Rodriguez, 3,080 
(three thousand and eighty) English miles away. Windows burst 
and walls cracked in Batavia, 100 miles away, not from earthquake 
but from the effect of air waves. The explosions declined in vio- 
lence, and finally ceased to be heard at Buitenzorg, 100 miles away, 
at 2 :30 a. m. on Tuesday, August 28th. 

SEA WAVE COMPLETES DESTRUCTION. 

A fairly large sea wave at 5 o'clock on the 26th reached the 
Java shore at Tyringiu, twenty-four miles from Krakatoa, where 
it destroyed many houses near the sea. A little later a wave 
caused considerable damage at Telok Betong, at the head of the 
Lampong Bay, in Sumatra, forty-four English miles away. 

At 7 o'clock a low-lying Chinese camp at Merak was swept 
away. On the 27th, after the sea had rushed into the volcano, 
the village of Sirik, six miles south of the town of Anjer, was sub- 
merged, and five hours later a larger wave swept away nearly 
the whole town of Anjer. The destruction was completed by an- 
other wave an hour or so later, and at the same time the lower 
part of Telok Betong was overwhelmed. Some time after 10 o 'clock 
came an immense wave which inundated the foreshores of Java 
and Sumatra and carried away all that was left of Tyringin, 
Merak and Telok Betong, as well as many other hamlets and vil- 
lages near the shore. Terror and dismay reigned everywhere, 
and darkness settled over the land. At Anjer, where this great 
wave must have come, no one was left to see it, the few survivors 
of the first wave having fled to the hills. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, BRIDGETOWN, ISLAND OF BARBADOS. 

There are enacted here all the laws for the group of islands in the Lesser Antilles 

belonging to the British West Indies. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

DOING THE FAMILY WASHING. 

The above picture is from the photograph taken at British Guiana. It is interesting, 

as this town is located near the scene of the volcanic disurbance of the 

West Indies, and the country to which the British authorities 

may deport the St. Vincent survivors. 



•mm. 





XI* 



H 



Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

MONT GAROU SOUFRIERE, ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT. 
The death-dealing volcano of the West Indian British possessions. It is esti- 
mated that during the recent eruption thousands of people lost their lives. 



The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa. 311 

WAVE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE FEET HIGH. 

This wave was estimated to have swept the land to a height of 
135 feet in the funnel-shaped strait leading up to Merak, thirty- 
three miles from Krakatoa. People who escaped the first waves 
and, warned by them, succeeded in the darkness in gaining the 
hills back of the plains lying next the shores, were the only ones 
who escaped. As already stated, thirty-six thousand three hun- 
dred and eighty souls failed to gain the hills and were destroyed. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

HAWAIIAN ERUPTIONS AND THE FAMOUS KILAUEA AND MAUNA 

LOA. 

Magnificent Description by an Eye-Witness — A River of Molten Metal — Con- 
tinual Stream of Lava Heats the Ocean for a Distance of Twenty Miles — 
Mauna Loa's Crater the Largest of Any Volcano in the "World. 

In 1789 an eruption from the volcano Kilauea in Hawaii caused 
the death of a hundred men by the hot and poisonous gases thrown 
off. In extent of damage to human life this eruption does not com- 
pare with other great catastrophes, but the splendor of its eruption 
in 1840 is so well described by an eye-witness that we give his 
letter enabling the reader to imagine the appearance of the deadlier 
rivers of fire which rush down volcanic slopes. 

"For several years past," writes the witness, the Rev. Titus 
Coan, "the great crater of Kilauea has been rapidly filling up by 
the rising of the crust and by the frequent gushing forth of the 
molten sea below. In this manner the great basin below the black 
ledge, estimated to be five hundred feet deep, was long since filled 
by the ejection and cooling of successive masses of the fiery fluid. 
These silent eruptions continued to occur at intervals until the 
black ledge was repeatedly overflowed, each cooling and forming 
a new layer from two feet thick and upwards until the whole area 
of the crater was filled up, at least fifty feet above the original black 
ledge, and thus reducing the whole depth of the crater to less than 
nine hundred feet. This process continued to the latter part of 
May, 1840, when the whole area of the crater became one entire 
sea of ignigenous matter, raging like old ocean when lashed into 
fury by a tempest. For several days the fires raged with fearful 
intensity. The infuriated waves sent up infernal sounds, and 
dashed with such energy against the sides of the awful cauldron 
as to shake the solid earth above, and to detach huge masses of 
overhanging rocks, which, leaving their ancient beds, plunged into 
the fiery gulf below. So terrific was the scene that no one dared 

313 



Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 313 

to approach it, and travelers on the main road, which lay along 
the verge of the crater, feeling the ground tremble beneath their 
feet, fled and passed by at a distance. 

A EIVEH OF MOLTEN METAL. 

"On the 30th of May the people of Puna observed the appear- 
ance of smoke and fire in the interior, a mountainous and desolate 
region. Thinking it might be some burning jungle they took little 
notice of it till the next day, Sunday, when meetings in the dif- 
ferent villages were thrown into confusion by sudden and grand 
exhibitions of fire, on a scale so large and fearful as to leave them 
no room to doubt the cause of the phenomenon. The fire aug- 
mented during the day and night; but it did not seem to flow off 
rapidly in any direction. All were in consternation, as it was 
expected that the molten flood would pour itself down from its 
height of four thousand feet to the coast, and no one knew to what 
point it would flow, or what devastation would attend its fiery 
course. On Monday, June 1st, the stream began to flow off in a 
northeasterly direction, and on the following Wednesday, June 3d, 
at evening, the burning river reached the sea, having averaged 
about half a mile an hour in its progress. The rapidity of the flow 
was very unequal, being modified by inequalities in the surface 
over which the stream passed. 

A CONTINUAL STKEAM OF LAVA. 

' ' Sometimes it seemed to move five miles an hour, and at others, 
owing to obstructions, it made no apparent progress except in 
filling up deep valleys, and in swelling over or breaking away hills 
and precipices. 

' ' The source of the eruption is in a forest, and in the bottom of 
an ancient, wooded crater, about four hundred feet deep, and prob- 
ably eight miles east of Kilauea. From Kilauea to this place the 
lava flows in a subterranean gallery probably at the depth of a 
thousand feet, but its course can be distinctly traced all the way 
by the rending of the crust of the earth into innumerable fissures, 
and by the emission of smoke, steam and gases. The eruption in 



Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 315 

this old crater is small, and from this place the stream disappears 
again for the distance of a mile or two, when the lava again gushes 
up and spreads over an area of about fifty acres. Again it disap- 
pears and at some places it is impossible to trace its subterranean 
channel. After flowing underground several miles, perhaps six or 
eight, it again broke out like an overwhelming flood, and sweeping 
forest, hamlet, plantation, and everything before it, rolled down 
with resistless energy to the sea, where, leaping a precipice of forty 
or fifty _ feet, it poured itself in one vast cataract of fire into the 
deep below with loud detonations, fearful hissings, and a thousand 
unearthly and indescribable sounds. Imagine to yourself a river 
of fused minerals, of the breadth and depth of Niagara, and of a 
deep, gory red, falling in one emblazoned sheet, one raging torrent, 
into the ocean. The atmosphere in all directions was filled with 
ashes, spray, gases, etc. ; while the burning lava as it fell into the 
water was shivered into millions of minute particles, and being 
thrown back into the air fell in showers of sand on all the sur- 
rounding country. The coast was extended into the sea for a quar- 
ter of a mile, a sand beach and a new cape being formed. Three 
hills of scoriae and sand were also formed in the sea, the lowest 
about two hundred, the highest about three hundred feet. 

OCEAN HEATED FOR TWENTY MILES. 

"For three weeks this terrific river disgorged itself into the 
sea with little abatement. Multitudes of fishes were killed, and the 
waters of the ocean were heated for twenty miles along the coast. 
The breadth of the stream where it fell into the sea is about half a 
mile, but inland it varies from one to four or five miles in width, 
conforming itself like a river to the face of the country over which 
it flowed. The depth of the stream will probably vary from ten to 
two hundred feet, according to the inequalities of the surface over 
which it passed. During the flow night was converted into day on 
all eastern Hawaii; the light was visible for more than one hun- 
dred miles at sea; and at the distance of forty miles fine print 
could be read at midnight. 



316 Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 

THE MOLTEN RIVER STILL ALIVE. 

"The whole course of the stream from Kilauea to the sea is 
about forty miles. The ground over which it flowed descends at the 
rate of one hundred feet to the mile. The crust is now cooled, 
though scalding steam, pungent gases and smoke are still emitted 
in many places. In pursuing my way for nearly two days over 
this mighty smoldering mass I was more and more impressed at 
every step with the wonderful scene. Hills had been melted down 
like wax; ravines and deep valleys had been filled; and majestic 
forests had disappeared like a feather in the flames. On the outer 
edge of the lava where the stream was more shallow and the heat 
less vehement, and where the liquid mass cooled soonest, the trees 
were mowed down like grass before the scythe, and left charred, 
crisp, smoldering, and only half consumed." 

LIKE CLOTTED BLOOD. 

During the progress of the descending stream it would often 
fall into some fissure, and forcing itself into apertures and under 
massive rocks, and even hillocks and extended flats of ground, and 
lifting them from their ancient beds bear them with all their mass 
of soil, trees, etc., on its viscous and livid bosom like a raft on the 
water. "When the fused mass was sluggish, it had a gory appear- 
ance like clotted blood, and when it was active, it resembled fresh 
and clotted blood mingled and thrown into violent agitation. 

Such a river as this, from this same crater of Kilauea, rushed 
down twenty years later and overwhelmed hundreds of human 
beings. Such a river as this, but on a steeper slope and with a 
swifter current swept over tragic St. Pierre in Martinique. 

With the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands the United States 
acquired the greatest volcano in the world. Soon after this annexa- 
tion Kilauea tried to show itself to a spectacular advantage, but the 
display did not last long. This vast crater of Kilauea is always 
active in a sense, however, and at least ten times in the last century 
it gave demonstrations of its power. In 1855 the great crater, more 
than three miles across, poured 38,000,000,000 cubic feet of molten 
lava down the sides of the cone. In 1859 a stream of lava ran fifty 



Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 317 

miles from the mountain, covering the distance in eight days. In 
these islands, also, the United States government acquired some 
other mighty volcanoes. Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Mauna 
Hualali are three of the principal cones, the two first named stand- 
ing more than 18,000 feet high. Kilauea, as an active crater, how- 
ever, is greatest of all, presenting the picture of a lake of fire and 
brimstone nearly nine miles in circumference. Looking over this 
vast lake of fire, at boiling point, one sees vapors rising through 
the molten mass, lifting balloon-like cones of molten rock from the 
surface, spreading them, and finally bursting the balloon, sending 
fiery showers into the air, the hot liquid falling back, unsolidified, 
into the cauldron. Everywhere this process of bubble-making and 
bubble-breaking is going on, throwing a continuous shower of fiery 
spray into the air. 

When this great cauldron overflowed in 1840 it had been pre- 
ceded by violent earthquakes. On this occasion the lava flowed 
through some subterranean fissure, emerging from the earth at a 
height of 1,250 feet above sea level. In two days it had traveled 
eleven miles, plunging into the ocean with tremendous detonations. 
So much lava was exuded that the coast line was extended more 
than a quarter of a mile, and the surrounding ocean was so heated 
that dead fish floated ashore for ten miles on each side of the 
cataract. 

MAUNA LOA. 

How many lives Mauna Loa of Hawaii has taken in the past 
is not known. The crater of Mauna Loa is the largest of active 
volcanoes in the world. The last eruption, in 1899, sent out a vast 
stream of lava that almost reached Hilo, but only a few lives were 
lost. Still the explosions were so strong that Los Angeles suffered 
from the severest earthquake in its experience, and in Lake Su- 
perior a great tidal wave rose on the south shore. 

The Alaskan coast was also shocked and about one-fifth of the 
earth 's area affected by the blowing off of Hawaii 's volcanic queen. 
The Hawaiian group of islands is entirely of volcanic formation, 
and it is current belief of the natives that as the islands rose from 
the waters by fire so they will eventually disappear beneath the 
waters again. 



318 Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 

ERUPTION OF 1868 DESCRIBED BY AN EYE WITNESS. 

Charles G. Williamson says: In 1868 I was an eye-witness of 
the great eruption of Mauna Loa in the island of Hawaii. At the 
present moment a few details of that appalling circumstance may he 
of general interest. Mauna Loa (the long mountain) is the highest 
peak between the Andes and Himalaya Mountains, and its great 
summit crater Mokuaweoweo had been cold and extinct for ages. 
The first indication of what was going to happen was an earthquake 
at 5 a. m. on March 9. On March 26 I observed, after sunset, many 
bright flashes in the sky which could not be accounted for, as the 
air was perfectly clear, and no cloud was visible in any direction. 
The following morning my native servant came calling me with the 
cry of fire. Looking out, I saw a heavy column of smoke rising from 
the mountain summit, and it spread out like a huge fan, widening 
and widening until the whole vicinity was enwrapped in murky 
sulphurous vapor, totally obscuring the sun, and causing all vegeta- 
tion to shrivel up. When night came there was no appearance of 
fire on the mount, but the dense atmosphere remained. Next morn- 
ing about 10 :15 there began a series of most alarming earthquakes, 
which culminated in an awful shock on Thursday, April 2, at 3 :40 
p. m. The earth rose and fell like waves of the sea ; and the large 
native kukui trees, with trunks from two to three feet diameter, 
swayed backwards and forwards like brambles in a storm, though 
not a breath of air was moving. Every stone wall was leveled in an 
instant as the seismic wave passed under them, and when it reached 
the sea the concussion caused the cliffs to fall in huge masses, and 
the waters rose and fell six times in twenty minutes, overwhelming 
the palm trees and the picturesque grass houses of the natives, re- 
sulting in the destruction of more than one hundred houses and loss 
of forty-six lives, in a very thinly populated district. The earth- 
quakes, I may say, continued for days after ; indeed, the whole island 
seemed to rock about continuously, and it was months before the 
earth ceased to vibrate. In my diary of that year there is a record 
of 157 distinct shocks personally experienced in the week before the 
great earthquake of April 2, and 122 shocks in the six days imme- 
diately after it, but almost every day until the end of 1868 there was 
one or more slight, but perceptible, earth tremors. 



Hawaiian Eruptions and Kilauea. 319 

Shortly after the terrible earthquake there was an eruption of an 
extraordinary character. It is marked in my diary as on April 7, 
when at about 5 p. m. the earth burst open with a tremendous crash 
on the mountain slope, about ten miles from the sea. Here 
was the residence of an Englishman at whose house I had been hos- 
pitably entertained a short time before. The earth opened with a 
terrific explosion, pouring out streams of liquid fire, which in an 
incredibly short space of time covered the most beautiful grass- 
covered plateau of the island. The house and gardens were com- 
pletely submerged and the inhabitants only escaped by racing in 
front of the pursuing flood of fire, which was about half a mile wide. 
A fine horse, belonging to the owner of the buried residence, was 
tethered in a pasture, and made frantic efforts to break its halter, 
but when the rushing lava reached it, the rope shriveled up and the 
beautiful creature bounded away without any hurt; but a herd of 
200 cattle was overtaken and in a moment disappeared. Thirty- 
seven houses were swept away by the lava flow, but no lives were 
lost. There was a house, containing three persons, which was en- 
tirely surrounded by the flowing lava, which, piling itself up above 
the roof level, left the building untouched, and the inmates were 
found to be alive and unhurt when the lava had cooled sufficiently to 
allow any one to succor them. 

But this was only an incident of the period. The great earth- 
quake shock previously spoken of was caused by the blowing up of 
another part of the mountain. On this occasion great masses of shat- 
tered rock were hurled through the air to a considerable distance, 
and streams of hot mud poured over the land to a distance of three 
miles from the source of the explosion. It may not be scientifically 
correct to speak of it as a mud flow ; it was probably a terrific land- 
slide caused by the violent upheaval, but in its way it carried away 
magnificent trees and cyclopean blocks of rock. Ten houses were 
destroyed in its course, and thirty-one lives were lost. Needless to 
say, the whole neighborhood was rent and cracked by the volcanic 
convulsion. Had it happened in any thickly-populated district, the 
loss of life would probably have been as appalling as it is in the 
island of Martinique. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINE I3LANDS. 

Famous Volcanoes Now Possessions of the United States — The Mayon in 
Province of Luzon — Taal South of Manila — Many Destructive Eruptions. 

When the Philippine Islands were ceded to the United States 
by Spain she came into possession of several volcanoes that are 
prepared at any time to compete with those of any other nation for 
picturesque display or awful destruction. 

Most of the islets, if not indeed the whole archipelago, are of 
volcanic origin. There are many volcanoes, two of them in almost 
constant activity, viz., the Mayon, in the extreme east of Luzon 
Island, and the Taal volcano, in the center of Bombon Lake, thirty- 
four miles due south of Manila. Also in Negros Island the Can- 
lauan volcano is occasionally in visible eruption. In 1886 a portion 
of its crater subsided, accompanied by a tremendous noise and a 
slight ejection of lava. In the picturesque Island of Camiguin a 
volcanic mountain suddenly arose from the plain in 1872. 

THE MAYON. 

The Mayon volcano is in the Province of Albay, hence it is pop- 
ularly known as the Albay volcano. Around its base there are sev- 
eral towns and villages, the chief being Albay, the capital of the 
province, Cagsauga (called Daraga) and Camalig on the one side, 
and Malinao, Tobaco, etc., on the side facing the east coast. In 
1769 there was a serious eruption, which destroyed the towns of 
Cagsauga and Malinao, besides several villages, and devastated 
property within a radius of twenty miles. Lava and ashes were 
thrown out incessantly during two months, and cataracts of water 
were formed. In 1811 loud subterranean noises were heard pro- 
ceeding from the volcano, which caused the inhabitants around to 
fear an early renewal of its activity, but their misfortune was post- 
poned. On the 1st of February, 1814, it burst with terrible vio- 

320 



Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 321 

lence. Cagsauga, Badiao, and three other towns were totally de- 
molished. Stones and ashes were ejected in all directions. The 
inhabitants fled to caves to shelter themselves. So sudden was the 
occurrence that many natives were overtaken by the volcanic pro^ 
jectiles and a few by lava streams. In Cagsauga nearly all property 
was lost. Father Aragoneses estimates that 2,200 persons were 
killed, besides many being wounded. 

An eruption took place in the spring of 1887, but only a small 
quantity of ashes was thrown out and did very little or no damage 
to the property in the surrounding towns and villages. 

The eruption of the 9th of Juby, 1888, severely damaged the 
towns of Libog and Legaspi, plantations were destroyed in the vil- 
lages of Bigaa and Bonco, several houses were fired, others had the 
roofs crushed in, a great many domestic animals were killed, fifteen 
natives lost their lives, and the loss of live stock (buffaloes and 
oxen) was estimated at 500. The ejection of lava and ashes and 
stones from the crater continued for one night, which was illumi- 
nated by a column of fire. 

The last eruption occurred in May, 1897. Showers of red-hot 
lava fell like rain in a radius of 20 miles from the crater. In the 
immediate environs about 400 persons were killed. In the village 
of Bacacay houses were entirely buried beneath the lava ashes and 
sand. The road to the port of Legaspi was covered out of sight. 
In the important town of Tobaco there was total darkness and the 
earth opened. Hemp plantations and a large number of cattle 
were destroyed. In Libog over 100 inhabitants perished in the 
ruins. The hamlets of San Roque, Misericordia and Santo Nino, 
with over 150 inhabitants, were completely covered with burning 
debris. At nighttime the sight of the fire column, heaving up 
thousands of tons of stones, accompanied by noises like the boom- 
ing of cannon afar off, was indescribably grand, but it was the 
greatest public calamity which had befallen the province for some 
years past. 

The mountain is remarkable for the perfection of its conic 
form. Owing to the perpendicular walls of lava formed on the 
slopes all around, it is not possible to reach the crater. The eleva- 
tion of the peak has been computed at between 8,200 and 8,400 feet. 



322 Volcanoes op the Philippine Islands. 

Professor John Foreman of England visited the volcano at the 
time of its last eruption, and describes it as follows : "I have been 
around the base on the east and south sides, but the grandest view 
is to be obtained from Cagsauga (Daraga). On a clear night when 
the moon is hidden a stream of fire is distinctly seen to flow from 
the crest." 

MAYON. 

The most notable eruption of the volcano of Mayon is described 
by Professor Samuel Kneeland in his "Volcanoes and Earth- 
quakes" as follows: 

"In the latter part of December, 1881, I found myself on board 
a steamer bound for Iloilo, to the Island of Luzon, in the Province 
of the Camarines, and especially to that part of the island known 
as Legaspi, on the eastern side of the peninsula on which the vol- 
cano of Mayon is situated. 

' ' We had the first sight of the mountain of Mayon on the west- 
ern side, at Donsol, watching it until late at night, when the view 
was cut off by the high lands around which we were to sail. We 
passed through the Straits of San Bernardino to Legaspi, and by 
daybreak we had rounded the point where we again beheld Mayon 
to the west of us. 

"There is something grand in this symmetrical peak, a typical 
volcano, rising over seven thousand feet from the water's edge, 
and displaying here, on the verge of the Pacific, its pillar of cloud 
by day and its pillar of fire by night. It is the beacon of the mari- 
ner coming westward from Polynesia, with no land to the east, 
nearer than the Ladrone or Marianne Islands, over one thousand 
two hundred miles away. 

"Landing at Legaspi we rode to Daraga, a few miles distant, to 
get the nearest and best view of the volcano, and to see the traces of 
the great eruption of 1814, which destroyed the old town, then sit- 
uated higher up the mountain. The new town of Daraga is within 
five miles of the base of the mountain : near it are the remains of the 
church and other buildings then overwhelmed, their ruins project- 
ing from the masses of rocks and ashes. Pieces of lava six feet in 
diameter were thrown from the crater to a distance of five miles. 




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THE ABOVE MAP SHOWS THE LOCATION OF TWO OF THE LARGEST VOLCANOES ON 

THE GLOBE. 

By the recent treaty of peace signed with Spain, the United States came into possession of two of 
the largest volcanoes on the globe, those of Mayon and Taal. Both are located in the island 
of Luzon, the latter only fifty mUes frpnj Manila. Apo, located on the Island of MindS' 
aao. is also active. 



324 Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 

"During our Christmas dinner the summit was all ablaze, and 
presented the most magnificent volcanic exhibition I ever witnessed. 
It was neither so awe-inspiring as Kilauea nor so terrible as the 
fiery shower at the top of Vesuvius, already described ; but it was 
majestic in the distance which assured safety, sublime in its alti- 
tude and glorious in its constant outpouring of red-hot lava which 
trickled down its side like a cataract of fire. We had rare glimpses 
of the summit during the day, which was cloudy, but at night 
could only see the lurid glow which showed that the cauldron was 
still running over. 

"During the forenoon a crack opened on the Legaspi side, con- 
siderably below the top. From this was sent out an immense quan- 
tity of white smoke or vapor and clouds of ashes, which settled 
near its source. During the night there was a hardly perceptible 
earthquake trembling; but these disturbances are very common, 
though severe ones are rare, perhaps on account of the proximity of 
Mayon's safety valve. 

' ' The cone of Mayon is one of the most symmetrical in the world, 
both to the naked eye and through a glass; its lavas are mostly 
felspathic, being doleritic, like those of Etna. I obtained and 
brought home many characteristic specimens of the old and the 
new lava, taken from as high up the mountain as the barefooted 
natives could go. 

"By day I could detect no movement, as this was chiefly be- 
neath the rapidly cooling external (?rust. I could see only the curl- 
ing, light-colored vapor; the black lava, apparently still; calcined 
reddish-white and yellowish rocks, and beds of grayish cinders of 
considerable size and great steepness. Green vegetation extends 
far up and in pointed tongues amid the desolation of the peak, 
where it is not destroyed by the heat or rendered impossible of 
growth by lava. 

"At night the scene was truly magnificent and unique. At the 
date of my visit the volcano had poured out, for five months con- 
tinuously, a stream of lava on the Legaspi side from the very sum- 
mit. The viscid mass bubbled quietly but grandly, and overran 
the border of the crater, descending several hundred feet in a glow- 
ing wave, like red-hot iron. Gradually fading as the upper surface 



Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 325 

cooled, it changed to a thousand sparkling rills among the crev- 
ices, and, as it passed beyond the line of complete vision behind 
the woods near the base, the fires twinkled like stars, or the scin- 
tillations of a dying conflagration. More than half of the moun- 
tain height was thus illuminated. 

"Mayon has always been an object of superstitious fear to the 
natives, and a welcome light to the old Spanish galleons with their 
freight of silver from Acapulco. To remove the dread of the In- 
dians it was visited in 1592 by two Franciscan monks, one of whom, 
Estaban Solis, is believed to have nearly, if not quite, reached the 
summit. At all events he ascended as far as the suffocating gases 
permitted, and far enough to satisfy these simple children of Na- 
ture that there dwelt in the fire mountain no evil spirit who could 
injure them. This fear removed, the natives came to the priests 
for baptism, and thus was laid the foundation for the Christian 
civilization of the district. It was literally a baptism of fire for the 
monk, for, though he returned apparently unharmed, he fell sick 
and died within a year after his terrible experience. 

"It is stated that two young Scotsmen ascended to the crater 
in 1858. They found the task a very difficult one, as the steep cone 
was one mass of sand and cinders, interspersed with ragged clink- 
ers and lava. They do not claim to have been there more than 
three minutes, on account of the sulphurous gases, and it is scarce- 
ly probable that they saw down into the crater, as they do not de- 
scribe it. Then, as now, the ruddy glow of night gave place by 
day to the black and sombre colors of the lava, surmounted by the 
white vapor. 

The first historic notice of the eruption of this volcano is that 
of 1616. The first destructive one was on October 23, 1766. It 
completely overwhelmed Malinao, and did great damage to the 
neighboring villages. It began on July 20, lasting six days, with 
a pyramidal light gradually diminishing. From the summit a 
stream of lava one hundred feet wide descended for two days to 
the east; on the twenty-third of October such a quantity of water 
was discharged, apparently from the volcano, but probably from 
some other source, that rivers eighty to two hundred feet wide 
rushed down its sides to the sea with such violence as to set back 



326 Volcanoes op the Philippine Islands. 

the in-coming tide. A furious tempest raged from 7 p. m. to 3 
a. m. from northwest to south, washing away the roads, and was, no 
doubt, the source of the water attributed to the volcano. I do not 
think there is any well-authenticated instance of a volcano throwing 
out water, except as this results from heavy rains, from melting 
snow or ice, or from elevated and dislocated lakes formed by sub- 
terranean upheavals or depressions. 

The most destructive of the eruptions of Mayon was that of 
February 1, 1814. It began at 8 a, m. and was preceded by fre- 
quent earthquake shocks on the evening and morning before. There 
was suddenly shot out a column of stones, sand and ashes to a great 
height, obscuring the sides, down which a river of fire was seen to 
descend. As the darkness increased the people fled to the highest 
points; the glowing stones fell so thickly that there was no safety 
in the burning houses, and Daraga was turned to ashes. This was 
followed by a shower of sand until after noon. "Where the day 
before had been cultivated fields was now only a barren waste of 
sand and stones to a depth of twenty to thirty feet. In some vil- 
lages the cocoa palms were buried nearly to their tips, while in 
others the layer was scarcely a foot thick ; the top of the mountain 
appeared to have lost over one hundred feet of its height. 

Earthquakes are comparatively rare at Albay, though Sorsogon 
was almost destroyed in 1840, and the houses are not built, as in 
Manila, to withstand their shocks. Submarine disturbances are 
common. In 1865 Malinao and Tabaco were inundated by a tidal 
wave. A gentleman of Albay in 1853 says he ascended to or near 
the crater, and that the task was not difficult for a vigorous and 
expert climber. Whether he attained the summit or not is, of course, 
uncertain, but one fancies that the condition of the mountain is a 
far more important element for success than the strength of the 
man ; human valor and endurance cannot prevail against lava cur- 
rents, showers of burning cinders, and suffocating gases. 

A correspondent of "Nature," July 22, 1886, writes of Mayon, 
then in eruption: "I tried the ascent, and climbed to about five 
thousand feet, when incandescent stones and ashes obliged me to 
come quickly down. I crossed a patch of forest half burned and 
covered with ashes. The sight was magnificent. I never saw any- 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

WOMEN WHO COAL SHIPS AT ST. VINCENT. 
The lives of many of these lower class women were blotted out in the recent erup- 
tion of Mont Garou Soufriere. 




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Volcanoes op the Philippine Islands. 329 

thing like it as a sublime scene of devastation— ashes and stones and 
smoke everywhere, and fearful noise like heavy artillery all 
around. ' ' 

TAAL VOLCANO. 

Taal volcano is in the island of the Bombon Lake referred to 
above. The journey by the ordinary route from the capital would 
be about sixty miles. This volcano has been in an active state 
from time immemorial, and many eruptions have taken place with 
more or less effect. The first one of historical importance appears 
to have occurred in 1641 ; again, in 1709, the crater vomited fire with 
a deafening noise; on the 21st of September, 1716, it threw out 
burning stones and lava over the whole island from which it rises, 
but so far no harm had befallen the villagers in its vicinity. In 
1731, from the waters of the lake three tall columns of earth and 
sand arose in a few days, eventually subsiding into the form of an 
island about a mile in circumference. In 1749 there was a famous 
outburst, which dilacerated the coniform peak of the volcano, leav- 
ing the crater disclosed as it now is. 

The last and most desolating of all the eruptions of import- 
ance occurred in the year 1754, when the stones, lava, ashes and 
waves of the lake, caused by volcanic action, contributed to the 
utter destruction of the towns of Taal, Tanauan, Sala and Lipa, and 
seriously damaged property in Balayan, fifteen miles away whilst 
cinders are said to have reached Manila, thirty-four miles distant 
in a straight line. One writer says in his MS., compiled thirty-six 
years after the occurrence, that people in Manila dined with lighted 
candles at mid-day and walked about the streets confounded and 
thunderstruck, clamoring for confession during the eight days that 
the calamity was visible. • The author adds that the smell of the 
sulphur and fire lasted six months after the event, and was followed 
by malignant fever, to which half the inhabitants of the province 
fell victims. Moreover, adds the writer, the lake waters threw up 
dead alligators and fish, including sharks. 

The best detailed account extant is that of the parish priest of 
Sala at the time of the event. He says that about 11 o'clock at 
night on the 11th of August, 1749, he saw a strong light on the top 



330 Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 

of the Volcano Island, but did not take further notice. He went 
to sleep when, at 3 o 'clock the next morning he heard a gradually- 
increasing noise like artillery firing, which he supposed would pro- 
ceed from the guns of the galleon expected in Manila from Mexico, 
saluting the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Cagsaysay whilst passing. 
He only became anxious when the number of shots he heard far ex- 
ceeded the royal salute, for he had already counted a hundred times 
and still it continued. So he arose, and it occurred to him that 
there might be a naval engagement off the coast. He was soon un- 
deceived, for four old natives suddenly called out, ' ■ Father, let us 
flee!" and on his inquiry they informed him that the island had 
burst, hence the noise. Daylight came and exposed to view an 
immense column of smoke gushing from the summit of the volcano, 
and here and there from its sides smaller streams rose like plumes. 
He was joyed at the spectacle, which interested him so profoundly 
that he did not heed the exhortations of the natives to escape from 
the grand but awful scene. It was a magnificent sight to watch 
mountains of sand hurled from the lake into the air in the form of 
erect pyramids and then falling again, like the stream from a foun- 
tain jet, Whilst contemplating this imposing phenomenon with 
tranquil delight a strong earthquake came and upset everything in 
the convent. Then he reflected that it might be time to go, pillars 
of sand ascended out of the water nearer to the shore of the town 
and remained erect until, by a second earthquake, they, with the 
trees on the islet, were violently thrown down and submerged in 
the lake. The earth opened out here and there as far as the shores 
of the Laguna de Bay, and the lands of Sala and Tanauan shifted. 
Streams found new beds and took other courses, whilst in several 
places trees were engulfed in the fissures made in the soil. Houses 
which one used to go up into one now had to go down into, but the 
natives continued to inhabit them without the least concern. 

The volcano, on this occasion, was in activity for three weeks, 
the first three days ashes fell like rain. After this incident the na- 
tives extracted sulphur from the open crater, and continued to do 
so until the year 1754. 

In that year (1754), the same chronicler continues, between 
and 10 o'clock at night on the 15th of May, the volcano ejected boil- 



Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 331 

ing lava, which ran down its sides in such quantities that only the 
waters of the lake saved the people on shore from being burned. 
Toward the north stones reached the shore and fell in a place called 
Bayoyongan, in the jurisdiction of Taal. Stones and fire inces- 
santly came from the crater until the 2nd of June, when a volume of 
smoke arose which seemed to meet the skies. It was clearly seen 
from Bauan, which is on a low level about four leagues (fourteen 
miles) from the lake. 

Matters continued so until the 10th of July, when there fell a 
heavy shower of mud as black as ink. The wind changed its di- 
rection, and a suburb of Sala, called Balili, was swamped with mud. 
This phenomenon was accompanied by a noise so great that the 
people of Batangas and Bauan, who that day had seen the galleon 
from Acapulco passing on her home vo}^age, conjectured that she 
had saluted the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Cagsaysay. The noise 
ceased, but fire still continued to issue from the crater until the 
25th of September. Stones fell all that night, and the people of 
Taal had to abandon their homes, for the roofs were falling in with 
the weight upon them. 

The night of All Saints' Day was a memorable one (Nov. 1st), 
for the quantity of falling fire stones, sand and ashes increased, 
gradually diminishing again toward the 15th of November. Then, 
on that night, after vespers, great noises were heard. A long mel- 
ancholy sound dinned in one's ears, volumes of black smoke rose, 
an infinite number of stones fell, and great waves proceeded from 
the lake, beating the shores with appalling fury. This was fol- 
lowed by another great shower of stones, brought up amidst the 
black smoke, and lasted until 10 o'clock at night. 

On the 29th of November, from 7 o'clock in the evening, the vol- 
cano threw up more fire than all put together in the preceding seven 
months. The burning column seemed to mingle with the clouds; 
the whole of the island was one ignited mass. A wind blew. And 
as the priests and the mayor (alcalde) were just remarking that 
the fire might reach the town, a mass of stones was thrown up with 
great violence ; thunderclaps and subterranean noises were heard ; 
everybody looked aghast, and nearly all knelt to pray. Then the 
waters of the lake began to encroach upon the houses, and the in- 



332 Volcanoes of the Philippine Islands. 

habitants took to flight, the natives carrying away whatever chat- 
tels they could. 

After the terrible night of the 29th of November they thought 
all was over, when again several columns of smoke appeared, and 
the priest went off to the Sanctuary of Cagsaysay, where the prior 
was. Taal was entirely abandoned, the natives having gone in all 
directions away from the lake. On the 29th and 30th of November 
there was complete darkness around the lake vicinity, and when 
light reappeared a layer of cinders about five inches thick was seen 
over the lands and houses, and it was still increasing. Total dark- 
ness returned, so that one could not distinguish another's face, and 
all were more horror-stricken than ever. In Cagsaysay the na- 
tives climbed on to the housetops and threw down the cinders, which 
were over-weighting the structures. On the 30th of November 
smoke and strange sounds came with greater fury than anything yet 
experienced, while lightning flashed in the dense obscurity. It 
seemed as if the end of the world was arriving. When light re- 
turned the destruction was horribly visible; the church roof was 
dangerously covered with ashes and earth, and the writer opines 
that its not having fallen in might be attributed to a miracle ! Then 
there was a day of comparative quietude, followed by a hurricane 
which lasted two days. 

The Governor-General sent food and clothing in a vessel, which 
was nearly wrecked by storms, whilst the crew pumped and bailed 
out continually to keep her afloat, until at length she broke up on 
the shoals at the mouth of the Pansipit Eiver. 

The road from Taal to Balayan was impassable for awhile on 
account of the quantity of lava. Taal, once so important, was now 
gone, and Batangas, on the coast, became the future capital of the 
province. 

The actual duration of this last eruption was six months and 
seventeen days. 

In 1780 the natives again extracted sulphur, but in 1790 a writer 
at the date says that he was unable to reach the crater owing to the 
depth of soft lava and ashes on the slopes. 



CHAPTER XX. 
DESTRUCTIVE ERUPTIONS OF ETNA— OLDEST ON RECORD. 

The Eruptions of Mount Etna the Oldest Recorded of Any in the History of 
the World — The Poet Virgil Describes It — Ancients Believed a Living' 
Giant Resided Under the Mountain — A Stone Fifty Feet in Diameter 
Thrown from Its Crater. 

The eruptions of Mount Etna in Sicily are the oldest of which 
mankind has any exact record. The first eruption has been 
assigned to the year 1226 B. C, the second to the year 1170 B. C, 
and of the third in 1149 B. C. it is said that it drove the demigod 
Hercules from the island. These eruptions, however, belong in the 
realm of legend rather than in that of history. No doubt there 
were eruptions during that period preceding the dawn of history, 
when gods and demigods were supposed to be struggling for pos- 
session of the earth and air and sea. No doubt in Iceland also 
Ilecla was furnishing the makers of sagos with materials out of 
which they built the fire-god Thor, but of these as of the eruptions 
of Etna there is no authentic record. The first volcanic eruption at 
all accurately located in time is that of Etna in the time of Pythag- 
oras, 525 B. C, and even Pythagoras, though a definite historic 
figure, has about him a wide penumbra of legend. We have no 
details concerning that eruption. The next one occurred in 477 
B. C, being the one mentioned by the Greek historian, Thucydides. 

The conspicuous appearance of Mount Etna, the number and 
violence of its eruptions, the extent of its lava streams, its associa- 
tion with antiquity and its recorded history prolonged over more 
than twenty-four centuries have made it the most famous volcano 
either of ancient or modern times. 

Perhaps the first description of a volcano now extant is that of 
the Greek lyric poet Pindar in his Pythian ode for Heiron, winner 
in the chariot race in B. C. 474. The poet believes that the monster 
Typhon is imprisoned in the mountain, and says : 

"He is fast bound by a pillar of the sky, even by snowy Etna, 

333 



334 Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 

nursing the whole year through her dazzling snow. Whereat 
pure springs of unapproachable fire are vomited from the inmost 
depths; in the daytime lava streams pour forth a lurid rush of 
smoke ; but in the darkness a red rolling flame sweepeth rocks with 
uproar to the wide, deep sea. * * * That dragon-thing 
(Typhon) it is that maketh issue from beneath the terrible, fiery 
flood." There had been an eruption of Mount Etna two years 
before in 476, and it filled the mind of the ancient world exactly 
as the eruption of Mount Pelee fills the mind of the world to-day. 
In the third book of Thucydides (B. C. 471-402) he says: "In 
the first days of this spring the stream of fire issued from Etna, 
as on former occasions, and destroyed some land of the Catanians, 
who live upon Mount Etna, which is the largest mountain in Sicily. 
Fifty years, it is said, had elapsed since the last eruption, there 
having been three in all since the Hellenes have inhabited Sicily." 
The Latin poet Virgil has a passage on Etna which Conington thus 
translates : 

"But Etna, with her voice of fear, 
In weltering chaos thunders near. 
Now pitchy clouds she belches forth 
Of cinders red, and vapor swarth; 
And from her caverns lifts on high 
Live balls of flame that lick the sky: 
Now with more dire convulsion flings 
Disploded rocks, her heart's rent strings, 
And lava torrents hurls to-day 
A burning gulf of fiery spray." 

Pindar really believed there was a live giant under Etna. With 
Virgil the image of "her heart's rent strings" is only a figure of 
speech— he knows better. The scientific Latin poet Lucretius not 
only knows better but does a highly original thing at that time and 
gives in his powerful verses an account of an eruption in which 
he reduces it to the working of natural law. "And now at last," 
lie writes, "I will explain in what ways yon flame, roused to fury 
in a moment, blazes forth from the huge furnaces of Etna. First 
the nature of the whole mountain is hollow underneath, under- 
propped throughout with caverns of basalt rocks. Furthermore, in 



Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 335 

all caves are winds and air, for wind is produced when the air has 
been stirred and put in motion. When this air has been thoroughly 
heated, and raging about, has imparted its heat to all the rocks 
around, wherever it comes in contact with them, and to the earth, 
and has struck out from them fire burning with swift flames, it 
rises upt and then forces itself out on high, straight through the 
gorges ; and so carries its heat far, and scatters far its ashes, and 
rolls on smoke of a thick, pitchy blackness, and flings out at the 
same time stones of prodigious weight— leaving no doubt that this 
is the stormy force of air. Again the sea to a great extent breaks 
its waves and sucks back its surf at the roots of the mountain. 
Caverns reach from this sea as far back as the deep gorges of the 
mountain below. Through these you must admit that air mixed 
up with water passes ; and the nature of the case compels this air 
to enter in from that open sea, and pass within, and then go out in 
blasts and so lift up flame, and throw out stones, and raise clouds 
of sand ; for on the summit are craters, as they name them in their 
own language, what we call gorges and mouths." 

It is but a step from this conception of Lucretius to the some- 
what fuller knowledge of modern science. It is far nearer the truth 
than the old myth-maker got when from the hint of Etna with its 
one great crater he invented the giant Polyphamus with his one 
eye in the middle of his forehead. It is well though that we have 
both the science and the myth. Literature and art would be much 
poorer if Polyphemus had never been conceived. 

Accounts of Etna were published by various scholars from 
1541 to 1669, in which year the English ambassador to Constanti- 
nople forwarded to King Charles II. • ' a true and exact account of 
the late prodigious earthquake and eruption of Mount Etna or 
Monte Gibello." Numerous accounts in the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries make this volcano the best studied of any that 
exist. This is of course due to the fact that the mountain has 
always been densely populated and consequently has been closely 
observed. With two cities, Catania and Aci Reale, and sixty-two 
towns and villages on Mount Etna it supports a population of more 
than 300,000 persons. Its area is four hundred and eighty square 
miles, but of these only about two hundred and eleven are habit- 



336 Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 

able and the population is consequently about 1,424 to the square 
mile. Down the sides of this densely populated and most fertile 
cone have flowed since 525 B. C. the fiery outpourings of seventy- 
eight recorded eruptions, nineteen of which were extremely violent, 
some of them doing terrific damage. 

On the occasion of the eruption in 477 B. C. two heroic youths 
named Anapias and Amphinomus performed a deed to which 
Roman Seneca and other writers allude with enthusiasm. While 
the lava was overwhelming (not for the last time) the city of 
Katana, these two placed their aged parents on their shoulders and 
at the risk of their lives bore them through the flaming streets, and 
succeeded in placing them in safety. The story was decorated by 
the legend that the fiery streams of lava parted to let them through. 
Statues were raised in honor of these "Pious Brothers," and a 
temple was erected to commemorate the deed. A Latin poet con- 
cludes his poem on Etna with a description of this act, saying: 
"The flames blushed to touch the filial youths, and retired before 
their footsteps. On their right hand fierce dangers prevailed; on 
their left were burning fires. Athwart the flames they passed in 
triumph, his brother and he, each safe beneath his filial burden. 
The devouring flames fled backward and checked itself around the 
twin pair. At length they issued forth unharmed, and bore with 
them their deities in safety." We take the liberty of doubting 
that the fire of the lava was so gentlemanly and well disposed 
toward the two young fellows, but that doubt does not lessen our 
admiration for their pluck, and though the thing happened twenty- 
three hundred and seventy-nine years ago we are glad they saved 
the old people. 

An important eruption of Etna occurred in 396 B. C. The 
lava broke out from the most northerly of the volcano's smaller 
cones, followed the course of the river Acesines, entered the sea 
at the site of the Greek colony of Naxos and compelled Himileo, 
the Carthaginian general, who was attempting to get from Mes- 
sana to Syracuse, to march his troops around the west side of the 
mountain. After this no eruption is recorded for two and a half 
centuries, and then in 140 B. C. the mountain destroyed forty 
people. 



Destructive Eruptions oe Etna. 337 

Some philosopher should study out the connection between fish 
and a lack of veracity. It is said that in 126 B. C. Etna poured 
such a mass of molten matter into the Ionian Sea that the water 
near the island of Lipari boiled and that the inhabitants ate so 
large a number of the cooked fish thrown upon the shore that a 
distemper appeared and destroyed a large number of people. If 
we have been rendered unduly skeptical and this fish-story is a 
fact, it is certainly a most curious form of the destructive effects of 
volcanoes. 

Four years after the fish a new eruption nearly destroyed the 
city of Katana, the roofs being broken in by the weight of hot 
ashes. The lava streams luckily turned aside from the city, but the 
damage was such that the Romans granted the inhabitants an im- 
munity of all taxes for a space of ten years. It is the earliest 
recorded relief measure for earthquake sufferers. 

TENTH ERUPTION OF ETNA. 

The tenth eruption and earthquake took place shortly before the 
death of Cassar, and after the fact it was considered a portent of 
the event. Five small eruptions took place between this time and 
72 A. D. and then for near two centuries Etna slept. In 252 A. D. 
a violent eruption lasted nine days. The lava flowed in the direc- 
tion of Catania, as the ancient city had come to be called, and for 
the first time the inhabitants employed the veilof St. Agatha as a 
charm to stay the torrents of lava rushing down upon them. St. 
Agatha had been martyred the year before. When the terrified 
people of Catania saw the stream of lava approaching the city they 
rushed to the tomb, removed the veil which covered the saint's 
body, carried it to the edge of the descending river of fire, and there 
its waves were stayed. 

After, an eruption in 420 there was during seven and a half cen- 
turies only one recorded eruption of Mount Etna. In 1169, how- 
ever, as though it had been gathering strength through all those 
centuries, the mountain broke forth in an eruption accompanied 
by a violent earthquake. In spite of the veil of St. Agatha, whose 
vigil it was that day, fifteen thousand people of Catania were al- 



338 Destbuctive Ekuptions or Etna. 

most instantly buried beneath the ruins of their homes. The 
cathedral of Catania was crowded with people honoring their pro- 
tecting saint and these, together with their Bishop and forty-four 
Benedictine monks, were buried beneath the ruins of the church. 
The side of the cone of one of the great craters of Etna fell into 
the crater. At Messina the sea, as afterwards at Lisbon and at 
Krakatoa, retired to some distance from the shore, and then sud- 
denly returned, overwhelming a portion of the city, and sweeping 
away a number of persons who had fled to the shore for safety. 
The clear and pure fountain of Arethusa at Syracuse became 
blackish, while the fountain of Ajo ceased to flow for two hours and 
then emitted water of the color of blood. Vines, corn and trees 
were burnt up over large districts. 

ETNA'S GREATEST ERUPTION. 

In the five hundred years between 1169 and 1669, twenty-two 
eruptions of Etna were recorded, many of them disastrous, but of 
the eruption of 1669 we have a more detailed account than of any 
that came before; and it was in every respect one of the most 
terrible on record. On the 8th of March the sun was obscured and 
a whirlwind blew over the face of the mountain ; at the same time 
earthquakes commenced, and continued to increase in violence for 
three days, when Mcolosi was converted into a heap of ruins. On 
the morning of the 11th, a fissure nearly twelve miles in length 
opened in the side of the mountain. This fissure was only six feet 
wide, but of unknown depth and a bright light came from it. In 
line with it opened six mouths emitting vast columns of smoke, and 
roarings audible forty miles away. Toward the close of the day 
a crater opened about a mile below the others, ejecting redhot 
stones and covering the country for sixty miles with sand and ashes. 

From this new crater poured a torrent of lava two miles wide, 
which encircled one town, and then destroyed Belpasso, a town of 
eight thousand inhabitants. Seven new mouths opened around the 
new crater, united with it, and continuing to pour forth lava the 
torrent destroyed the town of Mascalucia on March 23d. The 
crater cast up great quantities of reddish matter, forming the 



Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 339 

double-coned hill now called Monti Rossi. Two days later violent 
earthquakes shook the great central cone of the mountain down 
into its crater. The original current of lava had divided into three 
streams, one of which destroyed S. Pietro, the second Camporo- 
tondo, and the third the lands about Mascalucia, and then the vil- 
lage of Misterbianco. Fourteen villages were so destroyed and 
the lava was on its way to Catania itself. Two miles from the city 
it undermined a hill covered with cornfields, and bore it forward. 
A vineyard was also seen floating on its fiery surface. It reached 
the sixty-foot walls of Catania, accumulated, rose higher and 
higher, poured over in a cascade of heavy liquid fire, and over- 
whelmed part of the city. Another part of the stream threw down 
120 feet of the wall and flowed in. On April 23d the lava reached 
the sea, which it entered as a stream 600 yards broad and 40 feet 
deep. The water began to boil violently and clouds of steam rose 
carrying particles of scoria. Near the end of April the stream west 
of Catania which had seemed to be hardened, burst forth again, 
flowed into the Benedictine monastery and then branched off into 
the city. Attempts were made to build walls to stop it. 

Previous to this time the Senate, accompanied by the Bishop 
and clergy, had gone in procession out of the city to Monte di S. 
Sofia with all their relics, including St. Agatha's veil. They 
erected an altar, celebrated mass, "and used the exorcisms accus- 
tomed upon such extraordinary occasions, all which time the moun- 
tain ceased not as before with excessive roaring to throw up its 
smoke and flames with extraordinary violence and abundance of 
great stones which were carried through the air." The inhabi- 
tants watching the advance of the lava rushed into the churches 
to invoke the aid of the Madonna and the Saints. One Baron 
Papalardo, however, relying more upon his own efforts than upon 
supernatural assistance, set out with a party of fifty men, dressed 
in skins to protect them from the intense heat, and by means of iron 
crows and hooks broke open one of the solid walls of scoriae that 
flanked the liquid current so as to divert it from the menaced city. 
A passage was thus opened for a rivulet of melted matter, which 
(lowed in the direction of Paterno. The inhabitants of that town, 



340 Destructive Eruptions or Etna. 

alarmed for their own safety, took up arms and forced Baron 
Papalardo and his men to desist. 

The lava did not altogether stop for four months, and two years 
afterwards it was found to be red-hot beneath the surface. Eight 
years afterwards steam escaped from this lava after rain. One 
stone having a diameter of fifty feet was thrown a mile in this 
eruption and sank twenty-three feet in the earth. 

DESCRIBED BY AN EYE WITNESS. 

The English ambassador to Constantinople who saw the erup- 
tion writes : "I could discern the river of fire to descend the moun- 
tain, of a terrible fiery or red color, and stones of a paler red to 
swim thereon, and to be as big as an ordinary table. * * * Of 
twenty thousand persons which inhabited Catania, three thousand 
did only remain ; all their goods are carried away, the cannon of 
brass are removed out of the castle, some great bells taken down, 
the city gates walled up next the fire, and preparation made by 
all to abandon the city." 

Four eruptions took place between this terrible one of 1669 and 
that of January. 1693, when clouds of black smoke were poured 
from the great crater, and loud noises resembling the discharge of 
artillery were heard. A violent earthquake succeeded and Catania 
was shaken to the ground, burying 18,000 of its inhabitants in 
the ruins. It is said that in all fifty towns were destroyed in Sicily, 
together with from 60,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. Lava was emitted 
from the crater which was lowered by the eruption. Being far 
more widespread in their action earthquakes destroy a far greater 
number of people than volcanoes, but the very localization of the 
destruction in the case of the latter increases its horror. 

Seven eruptions of Etna are recorded between 1693 and 1755, 
the year of the gigantic earthquake which was felt more or less vio- 
lently over a region four thousand by five thousand miles in extent, 
and which brought to Lisbon the most terrible of all the catas- 
trophies which the earth has inflicted upon its dwellers. It would 
have been singular, with the commotion there was in that year in 
the depths of the earth, had Etna remained quiet. Early in the 
year the volcano showed signs of disturbance; a great column of 



Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 341 

black smoke issued from the crater, from which forked lightning 
was frequently emitted. Loud detonations were heard and two 
streams of lava issued from the crater. A new mouth opened four 
miles from the summit and a quantity of lava was ejected from it. 
An extraordinary flood of water descended from the Val del Bove, 
carrying all before it and strewing its path with huge blocks. 

The volume of water was estimated at 16,000,000 cubic feet, 
a greater amount than could be furnished by the melting of all the 
winter's snow on the mountain. It formed a channel two miles 
broad, and in some places thirty-four feet deep and it flowed at the 
rate of a mile in a minute and a half during the first twelve miles 
of its course. Lyell considers the flood was probably produced by 
the melting not only of the winter's snow, but also of older layers 
of ice, which were suddenly melted by the permeation of hot steam 
and lava, and which had been previously preserved from melting 
by a deposit of sand and ashes, as in the case of the ancient glacier 
found near the summit of the mountain in 1828. In November, 
1758, a smart shock of earthquake caused the cone of the great 
crater to fall in, but no eruption occurred at the time. 

Two not very noteworthy eruptions occurred in 1759 and 1763, 
and three years later Recupero, one of the historians of Etna, had 
a narrow escape while watching an eruption. This incident shows 
the peculiar action of flowing lava. The historian had ascended a 
small hill fifty feet high, of ancient volcanic matter, in order to 
watch the approach of the lava stream which was slowly advancing 
with a front of two and a half miles. Suddenly two small streams 
detached themselves from the main stream and ran rapidly toward 
the hill. Recupero and his guide at once hastened to descend, and 
had barely escaped when they saw the hill surrounded by lava. In 
a few minutes it was melted down and sank into the molten mass. 
The country of Montemozzo was devastated by an eruption in 1780. 

At the commencement of the great Calabrian earthquake of 
1787 Mount Etna ejected large quantities of smoke, but was other- 
wise quiescent. Twelve years afterwards a fresh outburst occurred, 
earthquakes were prevalent, and vast volumes of smoke bore to 
seaward, and seemed to bridge the sea between Sicily and Africa. 
A torrent of lava flowed toward Aderno, and a second flowed into 



342 Destructive Eruptions op Etna. 

the Val del Bove as far as Zoccolaro. A pit called La Cisterna, 40 
feet in diameter, opened in the Piano del Lago, near the great cone, 
and ejected smoke and masses of old lava saturated with water. 
Several months opened below the crater, and the country round 
about Zaffarana was desolated. Theabote Ferrara, author of a 
description of Etna, saw this eruption. "I shall never forget," 
writes he, "that this last mouth opened precisely upon the spot 
where, the day before, I had made my meal with a shepherd. On 
my return next day he related how, after a stunning explosion, 
the rocks on which we had sat together were blown into the air, 
and a mouth opened, discharging a flood of fire, which, rushing 
down with the rapidity of water, hardly gave him time to make 
his escape. " It is hard for a resident of a non-volcanic country to 
realize the indifference with which the inhabitants regard the risk 
of being overwhelmed by an eruption of lava. We can best under- 
stand it by comparing it with our own comparative indifference 
to the frequent disastrous railroad accidents of American rail- 
roads. 

FOURTEEN ERUPTIONS IN FIFTY-SIX YEARS. 

Fourteen eruptions of varying violence but no specially dis- 
tinguishing features occurred between this time and 1843, when 
fifteen mouths of fire opened near the crater of 1832 at the great 
height of 7,000 feet above the sea. They began by discharging 
scorias and sand, and afterwards lava, which divided into three 
streams, the two outer ones soon came to a standstill while the 
central stream continued to flow at the rapid rate of 180 feet a 
minute, the descent being at an angle of 25 degrees. The heat at a 
distance of 120 feet from the current was 90° F. A new crater 
opened just above Bronte and discharged lava, which threatened 
that town, but fortunately it encountered Monte Vittoria and was 
diverted into another course. While a number of the inhabitants 
of Bronte were watching the progress of the lava, the front of the 
stream was suddenly blown out as by an explosion of gunpowder; 
in an instant red-hot masses were thrown in every direction, and a 
cloud of vapor enveloped everything. Thirty-six persons were 



Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 343 

killed on the spot and twenty more survived but a few hours. The 
great crater emitted dense volumes of smoke and loud bellowings, 
also quantities of volcanic dust saturated with hydrochloric acid 
which destroyed the vegetation wherever it fell. 

ERUPTION IN MODERN TIMES. 

The grandest eruption of Etna recorded in modern times began 
on the 21st of August, 1852. It was first seen by a party of six 
English tourists who were ascending the mountain from Nicolosi 
in order to see the sunrise from the summit. As they approached 
the Casa Inglesi the crater commenced to give forth ashes and what 
appeared to be flames. In a narrow defile the party were met by 
a violent hurricane which overthrew both the mules and their 
riders, and urged them toward the precipices of the Val del Bove. 
They sheltered themselves beneath some masses of lava, when sud- 
denly an earthquake shook the mountain. Their mules were stam- 
peded, and they returned on foot toward daylight to Nicolosi, 
lucky to have escaped without injury. In the course of the night 
many mouths of fire opened in part of the Val del Bove, a great 
fissure opened at the base of one of the cones, and a crater was 
thrown up from which for several days showers of sand and 
scoriae were ejected. Next day lava flowed down the Val del Bove 
and two streams branched out. Afterwards it flowed towards Zaf- 
farana and devastated a large tract of woody region. 

Four days later a second crater was formed, from which lava 
was emitted together with sand and scoriae, which caused cones to 
rise around the craters. The lava moved slowly and toward the end 
of August it came to a stand, only a quarter of a mile from Zaf- 
farana. Mount Finocchio in the Val del Bove was ascended by 
the scientist Gemellario, who says the hill was violently agitated 
like a ship at sea. The surface of the Val del Bove or Valley of 
the Bull appeared like a molten lake ; scoriae were thrown up from 
the craters to a great height, and loud explosions were heard at 
frequent intervals. The eruption continued to increase in violence 
and two weeks after its beginning two new mouths opened emitting 
lava which flowed toward the Valley of Calanna, and fell over the 
Salto della Giumenta, a precipice nearly 200 feet deep. 



344 Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 

The noise of this Niagara of fire was like that of great clashing 
masses of metal. The eruption continued through all the early 
months of 1853, and though it gradually abated in violence it did 
not finally cease until May 27th, more than nine months after it 
began. The entire mass of lava ejected is estimated to be equal to 
an area six miles long by two miles broad with an average depth of 
twelve feet, One stream of lava which took the direction of Milo, 
reinforced by a new current, destroyed the hamlet of Caselle del 
Milo, and then divided into two branches which left the village of 
Caselle in safety between them. The inhabitants of La Macchia 
and Giarre gave themselves up for lost : for it seemed that the lava 
would be obliged to follow a valley that led it directly upon them. 
Happily, however, it ceased on the 20th of September to advance 
perceptibly. 

The crater of this eruption of 1852 was called the Cen- 
tenario from its having been formed at the time of the cen- 
tenary of the feast of St. Agatha. Santiago in Cuba was destroyed 
by an earthquake on the day of this eruption. During its whole 
period of nine months only one explosion proceeded from the main 
crater of Etna, which, at that time, however, cast an enormous 
quantity of ashes and scorise into the air. A singular phenomenon 
of this eruption was the appearance one day of ashes so white that 
at a distance they appeared like snow. Squeezed together by the 
hand they assumed the consistency of clay, but hardened in fire 
and could then be reduced to powder. They were thought to be the 
debris of felspathic rocks, disintegrated by the heat of the lava 
and blown out by the expansive power of disengaged gas. Two 
billion cubic feet of red-hot lava were spread over three square 
miles in this eruption. 

LAST ERUPTION OF ETNA. 

The last eruption of Etna, the seventy-eighth recorded of it, 
occurred in August, 1874, when the people of the towns on the 
north, west and east sides of the mountain were awakened by loud 
subterranean rumblings. Soon afterwards a formidable column of 
black smoke issued from the crater, accompanied by sand, scoriae 



Destructive Eruptions of Etna. 345 

and ignited matter. Severe shocks of earthquake were felt, the 
center of impulsion being apparently situated on the northern flank 
of the mountain, at a height of 2,450 meters above the level of the 
sea. Some small eruptive mouths opened near the great crater, 
and ejected lava, but the quantity was comparatively small, and 
but little damage was done. The center of disturbance was at an 
elevation of 7,600 feet above the sea on the north side of the crater. 
There a new crater was formed, having an elliptical contour and 
a diameter of about a hundred yards. It is composed of prehistoric 
gray labradorite and doleritic lava. Downwards from the main 
crater a long fissure extended for 400 meters, and along the line of 
this fissure no less than thirty-five minor cones opened with craters 
from three to thirty yards in diameter. The stream of lava ejected 
from these mouthlets was four hundred yards long, eighty wide 
and two thick, and the bulk of the volcanic material brought to the 
surface, including the principal cone and its thirty-five subordi- 
nates, and their discharge was calculated to amount to 1,351,000 
cubic meters. 

EARTHQUAKES PRESAGE OUTBURSTS. 

It will be seen from the account of the foregoing eruptions that 
there is a great similarity in the character of the eruptions of Etna. 
Earthquakes presage the outburst; loud explosions follow, rifts 
and mouths of fire open in the sides of the mountain ; smoke, sand, 
ashes and scoriae are discharged, the action localizes itself in one 
or more craters, cinders are thrown up and accumulate around the 
crater and cone, ultimately lava rises, and frequently breaks down 
one side of the cone where the resistance is least. Then the erup- 
tion is over. The symptoms which precede an eruption are gen- 
erally irregular clouds of smoke, ferilli, or volcanic lightnings, 
hollow intonations, and local earthquakes, which often alarm the 
surrounding country as far as Messina, and have given the whole 
province the name of Demon Valley, as being the abode of infernal 
spirits. These agitations increase until the vast caldron becomes 
surcharged with the fused minerals, when, if the convulsion is not 
sufficiently powerful to force them from the great crater (which, 



346 Destructive Ekuptions of Etna. 

from its great altitude and the weight of the glowing matter, re- 
quires an uncommon effort, they explode through that part of the 
side which offers the least resistance with a grand and terrific 
effect, throwing red-hot stones and flakes of fire to an incredible 
height, and spreading ignited cinders and ashes in every direc- 
tion. 

After the eruption of ashes, lava frequently follows, some- 
times rising to the top of the cone of cinders, at others breaching 
it on the least resisting side. When the lava has reached the base 
of the cone it begins to flow down the mountain, and being then in 
a very fluid state, it moves with great velocity. As it cools the 
sides and surface begin to harden, its velocity decreases, and in 
the course of a few days it only moves a few yards in an hour. 
The internal portions, however, part slowly with their heat, and 
months after the eruption clouds of steam arise from the black and 
externally cold lava beds after rain, which, having penetrated 
through the cracks, has found its way to the heated mass within. 

The ordinary lava flow from Mount Etna is seen therefore to 
be so slow as to be harmless, compared with the awful rush of fire 
which came so suddenly down the steep incline of Mount Pelee. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

EARTHQUAKES, THEIR CAUSE AND FREQUENCY. 

Earthquakes the Most Destructive Agent of Nature — Narratives of Calamities 
of a By-gone Century — Frequent Occurrence of Earthquakes — Scientific 
Theory of Earthquakes. 

Of all the destructive agencies of nature there is none to equal 
the earthquake. The hurricane is comparatively weak in its fury ; 
the volcanic eruption generally confines its ravage to its own neigh- 
borhood, but an earthquake may cover a whole land with ruins. 
The bare mention of the loss of life in a given earthquake conveys 
but a faint idea of the extent of human misery inflicted by it. We 
must picture to ourselves the slow, lingering death which is the 
fate of many a one buried or burnt in the fire which almost in- 
variably bursts out in a city where hundreds of dwellings have 
suddenly been shaken down— the numbers who escaped with loss 
of limb or serious bodily injuries and the surviving multitude sud- 
denly reduced to poverty and need. 

In the Calabrian earthquake of 1783 it is supposed that about 
a fourth part of the inhabitants of Polistena and other towns were 
buried alive, and might have been saved had there been hands to do 
it. In so general a calamity, where each was occupied with his own 
misfortunes or those of his family, help could seldom be had. i ' It 
frequently happened," says Sir Charles Lyell, "that persons in 
search of those most dear to them could hear their moans, recognize 
their voices, were certain of the exact spot where they lay buried 
beneath their feet, yet could afford them no succor. The piled mass 
resisted all their strength and rendered their efforts of no avail. 
At Terrannova four Augustin monks who had taken refuge in a 
vaulted sacristy, the arch of which continued to support a vast 
mass of ruins, made their cries heard for the space of three days. 
One only of the brethren of the whole convent was saved, and of 

347 



348 Earthquakes — Their Cause and Frequency. 

what avail was his strength to remove the enormous mass 'which 
had overwhelmed his companions! He heard their voices die away 
gradually, and when afterwards their four corpses were disin- 
terred, they were found clasped in each other's arms. 

AFFECTING SCENES. 

Affecting narratives are preserved of mothers saved after the 
fifth, sixth and even seventh day of their interment, when their 
infants had perished with hunger. In his work on the great 
Neapolitan earthquake of 1857, Mr. Mallet, from innumerable nar- 
ratives of personal peril and sad adventure, selects the distressing 
case of a noble family of Monte Murro as affording a vivid picture 
of the terrors of an earthquake night. Don Andrea del Fino, the 
owner of one of the few houses which had escaped destruction, was 
with his wife in bed, his daughter sleeping in an adjacent chamber 
on the principal floor. At the first shock his wife, who was awake, 
leaped from bed and, immediately after, a mass of the vaulting 
above came down and buried her sleeping husband. At the same 
moment the vault above their daughter's room fell in upon her. 
From the light and hollow construction of the vaults neither was 
at once killed. The signora escaped by leaping from the front 
window— how she scarcely knew. For more than two hours she 
wandered, unnoticed among the mass of terrified survivors in the 
streets, before she could obtain aid from her own tenants and de- 
pendants to extricate her husband. They got him out after more 
than eighteen hours entombment— alive indeed, but maimed and 
lame for life. His daughter was dead. As he lay longing despair- 
ingly for release from the rubbish, which a second shock, an hour 
after the first, had so shaken and closed in upon him that he could 
scarcely breathe, he heard, but a few feet off, her agonizing cries 
and groans grow fainter and fainter, until at last they died away. 

MEN MORE MERCILESS THAN NATURE. 

Too often in earthquakes and other great natural catastrophies 
men themselves show themselves more merciless than the blind 
forces of nature, The cirrn of the law being paralyzed by the gen- 



Earthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 349 

eral panic, thieves and ruffians quickly seize the opportunity. In 
1783 nothing could be more atrocious than the conduct of the peas- 
ants who nocked into the towns, not to rescue their fellow beings 
from lingering death, but to plunder the dying and the bodies of 
the dead. They dashed through the streets amid tottering walls 
and clouds of dust, trampling beneath their feet the bodies of the 
wounded and half buried, and often stripping them while yet living 
of their clothes. These were even lower than were that boatload 
of plunderers picked up near St. Pierre with rings from the charred 
bodies in their pockets. 

Darwin says that earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the 
prosperity of any country. "If beneath England," says he, "the 
now inert subterranean forces should exert those powers which 
most assuredly in former geological ages they have exerted, how 
completely would the entire condition of the land be changed! 
What would become of the lofty houses, thickly-packed cities, great 
manufactories, the beautiful public and private edifices? If the 
new period of disturbance were first to commence by some great 
earthquake in the dead of night how terrific would be the carnage ! 
England would at once be bankrupt; all papers, records and 
accounts would from that moment be lost. Government, being 
unable to collect the taxes, and failing to maintain its authority, 
the hand of violence and rapine would remain uncontrolled. In 
every large town famine would go forth, pestilence and death fol- 
lowing in its train. Dwellers in all great cities, New York, Chi- 
cago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, particularly all sea and 
lake ports, may likewise give themselves a shiver of horror at the 
thought of their so solid cities falling in upon them, but fortu- 
nately the experience of several ages shows that the regions subject 
to these terrible catastrophes are confined to a comparatively small 
part of the surface of the globe. Southern Italy and Sicily, homes 
of Vesuvius and Etna, the Azores, Portugal and Morocco ; Asia 
Minor, Syria and the Caucasus ; the Arabian shore of the Red Sea ; 
the East Indian archipelago; the West Indies, Quito, Peru, Chili 
and— mark it, ye builders of canals!— Nicaragua are particularly 
liable to destructive shocks. 



350 Earthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 

ONE EARTHQUAKE EACH YEAR. 

It is estimated that twelve or thirteen earthquakes, de- 
structive of life and property, occur every year. The surface 
of the globe is never free from sensible evidence of the continued 
operation of earthquake agency. In one quarter or another tremors 
or slight shakings are always taking place. When these are of a 
serious nature, whole cities have been destroyed, fertile districts 
with all their fruit and grain have been laid waste ; and enormous 
masses of human beings have lost their lives. Fifty or sixty thou- 
sand perished in the great Lisbon earthquake, while in the Cala- 
brian earthquake of which we have given a few human episodes, 
forty thousand people lost their lives. It is estimated that thirteen 
millions of the human race have met their deaths in earthquakes— 
a population greater than that of the Republic of Mexico! 

The changes which earthquakes produce on the surface of the 
earth disclose to the geologist an agency which seems to have been 
at work during every period of the world's history, and which 
has altered the surface of the continents to an extent that can 
hardly be imagined. They form new lakes and river courses, 
obliterate old ones, hollow out new valleys, form fissures of all 
sizes, and cause immense landslides. 

EGYPT HOST SOLID OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 

Egypt seems to be the most solid portion of the earth's sur- 
face, but even there is record of an earthquake in 1740 A. D., and 
Holland with its loose alluvial deposits has also felt their power. 
The bed of the ocean is not exempt from earthquakes, and vessels 
at sea have passed over the region where they were taking place. 
Such a subaqueous or underwater earthquake is described by Kip- 
ling in the yarn called "A Matter of Fact," and one year before 
the eruption of Mount Pelee, a ship captain reported such an earth- 
quake in the sea thirty miles south of Martinique. The shock gave 
the men in the vessel a sensation as though the ship had struck on 
a reef. 



Eakthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 351 

WHERE EARTHQUAKES ARE MOST FREQUENT. 

The localities where earthquakes are likely to occur are so well 
defined that their limits maj be exhibited on a map. They are 
most frequent around the present lines or centers of volcanic, 
action, and their frequency and violence seem to bear some relation 
to the activity and intensity of the associated volcanoes. Observers 
of volcanic phenomena have noticed that every great eruption, in 
whatever part of the world and whether from a vent on land or 
beneath the sea, is accompanied by earthquake shocks of greater or 
less violence and duration. On the other hand those observing 
earthquakes find them accompanied by volcanic eruptions. The 
opening of a volcano's vent often coincides with the closing of the 
earthquake as though the relief of pressure was sufficient to stop it. 
But though regions of active volcanic action are those of most fre- 
quent earthquake action, the earthquakes of such regions are not 
the most violent. 

It is said popularly that preceding an earthquake are various 
characteristic appearances in the sky or changes of atmosphere, 
sudden gusts of wind interrupted by sudden calms, irregularities in 
the season before or after the shock, violent rains at unusual sea- 
sons or in countries where rain is almost unknown, a reddening of 
the sun's disk, a haziness in the air often continuing for months 
and similar phenomena. All these things are so irregular in their 
appearance, however, and have so seldom been observed in con- 
nection with more than one earthquake that they probably have no 
real connection. The underground noises which precede, accom- 
pany or succeed the moment of shock are, on the contrary, inti- 
mately connected with the quaking. They do not always occur, 
though, even in earthquakes of the greatest violence. These sub- 
terranean sounds have been likened to chains pulled about, increas- 
ing to the loudness of thunder, and to the rumbling of carriages, 
growing gradually louder till it equals the loudest artillery, or they 
are like the hissing of masses of red-hot iron plunged in water. 
Sometimes sounds similar to these occur beneath the surface of the 
earth and are not followed by a shock. 

The phenomena of earthquakes themselves arc more uniform. 



352 Earthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 

Sometimes there is merely a gentle motion of the surface, which 
produces no injury. In severe earthquakes the almost invariable 
order of events is first a trembling, then a severe shock, or series 
of shocks, and finally a trembling, gradually becoming insensible. 
This progressive movement is produced by an earth wave, or true 
undulation of the solid crust of the earth. The whole mass of the 
area is not moved at once. A wave moves through the earth as 
a wave moves through the sea, and it is when the crest of a wave 
reaches a given point that that point feels the shock. In the case 
of the Lisbon earthquake the progress of the wave was roughly 
calculated, and shown to have very great velocity, lasting at any 
one spot for one brief though terrible instant. One account of the 
Lisbon earthquake states that the shock was felt as far as the St. 
Lawrence in Canada on one side ; on the other as far as the south- 
ern shores of Finland, and even in some of the West Indies— an 
area of seven and a half million square miles. This writer calcu- 
lates that if the earth's crust were twenty miles thick then a hun- 
dred and fifty million cubic miles of solid matter was moved. Other 
authorities do not estimate the affected area to be so large. 

TIDAL WAVE. 

One readily sees how an earthquake wave sweeping through the 
earth must stir the sea when it passes into it. In front of the advanc- 
ing wave of earth, whether it come from landward to the sea or 
along the sea bottom to the land, there must be a trough. When 
the bottom sinks the sea is drawn back from the shore, the wave of 
earth rising forces the water back still further, and then with reac- 
tion the water slides down the rear slope of the earth wave, creating 
the giant wave of water, which is so terribly destructive when it 
hurls itself and the ship it bears over the shore. In 1755, the time 
of the Lisbon earthquake, the tidal wave from the sea was fifty 
feet high at Cadiz, carrying all manner of sea things far up upon 
the land. 

CONNECTION BETWEEN EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES. 

Although the present scientific theory of earthquakes is not yet 
satisfactory to scientists, they are agreed as to the connection be- 



Earthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 353 

tween volcanoes and earthquakes, and know that they are pro- 
duced by the same subterranean agency. The existence of molten 
matter in the interior of the earth is the starting point in all except 
the chemical theory, propounded by Dany when first he discovered 
the metallic bases of the earths and alkalies. It occurred to him 
that those metals might abound in an unoxidized state in the sub- 
terranean regions to which water must occasionally penetrate. If 
this occurred gaseous matter would be set free, the metals would 
combine with the oxygen of the water, heat enough would be 
evolved to melt the surrounding rocks, the pressure of the gas 
would account for the earthquakes, and the lava of volcanoes would 
be explained. The theory found supporters, but. even its author 
abandoned it because of the improbability of the existence of un- 
combined metallic bases beneath the earth. They normally com- 
bine with oxygen. "What force then uncombined them? 

Mr. Mallet, assuming that volcanoes and the centers of earth- 
quake disturbances are always near the sea or other large supplies 
of water, says that when an eruption of igneous matter takes place 
beneath the sea bottom the first action must be to open up large 
fissures in its rocky materials, or to lift and remove its incoherent 
portions, such as sand, gravel and mud. The water on meeting 
the heated surfaces assumes the spheroidal state ; while in this con- 
dition the internal motion may be great but little steam is gener- 
ated ; but no sooner have the surfaces cooled than the water comes 
in close contact with them, and a vast volume of steam is explo- 
sively evolved, blown off into the deep, cold water of the sea, con- 
densed, and so gives a tremendous blow to the volcanic focus, 
and, being transferred outwardly in all directions, is transmitted 
as an earthquake shock. When the surfaces of the ignited mate- 
rial cool down below the point at which steam can be rapidly gen- 
erated, they cause merely a gentle boiling, which is transmitted as 
trembling after the shock. On the surfaces again becoming heated 
by conduction from the molten mass, these various phases are 
again repeated. This Mr. Mallet considers the chief cause of 
earthquakes, the evolution of steam through fissures and its irreg- 
ular condensation under pressure of sea water, or great fractures 
and dislocations in the rocky crust, suddenly produced by pres- 



354 Earthquakes— Their Cause and Frequency. 

sure acting on it from beneath or any other direction. The flaw 
in the theory needs no scientific training to discover. It explodes 
of itself when one asks the question, What caused the original fis- 
sure? The theory does not go back far enough in the chain of 
cause and effect. Another theory assumes that the earth cannot 
be merely a molten fluid core with a hardened rind floating upon 
it, for it has rigidity. But molten rock under such immense pres- 
sure as there is in the depths of the planet may have the rigidity 
of a solid and yet be fluid. Even though mainly solid it must still 
be full of areas of molten rock between which and the surface vol- 
canoes are orifices, tubes, chimneys of communication. Into such 
cavities water sinking down through crevices from the ocean or 
the land must be constantly finding its way; and the steam thus 
generated exerts such enormous pressure as to force the molten 
matter to the surface, itself mingling and escaping along with it. 

When a mass of water is suddenly precipitated into a hot cavern 
the explosion of steam will cause an earthquake concussion which, 
when there is no volcanic vent, may be sufficient to rend the strata 
above it and form a new one. Some such pressure from below 
there certainly is, and steam does undoubtedly rush and push 
and explode its way up volcanic shafts. For our part, we are 
pleased with the image of a hollow rubber ball filled with water 
and with surface covered with tiny punctures. Let the rubber 
surface contract as the crust of the earth contracts in cooling, and 
the water will spurt out. The analogy is not perfect, for the fiery 
fluid of the earth melts and burns its own way out, but to us the 
mechanical force which starts it out is sufficiently illustrated by 
the small boy and his rubber ball. 

The following chapter contains a list of the great earthquakes 
from the earliest times. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
DISASTROUS EARTHQUAKES OF HISTORY. 

Record of Earthquakes from 464 B. C. to the Present Time— Earthquake in 
Ancient Sparta Which Had an Important Political Bearing — Gibbon's 
Description of an Earthquake — Fifty Thousand Slain at Lisbon. 

Earthquake in Sparta left only five houses in the city, B. C. 464. 

One which made Euboea, in Greece, an island, 425. 

Helice and Bura, in Peloponnesus, swallowed up, 373. 

Duras, in Greece, and twelve cities in Campania buried, 345. 

Lysimachia buried, about 283. 

Ephesus overturned, A. D. 17. 

One accompanying the eruption of Vesuvius which buried 
Pompeii, 79. 

Great earthquakes in 105, 115, 126, 157, 358. 

At Constantinople; edifices destroyed, thousands perished, 557. 

In Africa many cities destroyed, 560. 

Awful one in Syria, Palestine and Asia, more than 500 towns 
destroyed, with immense loss of life, 742. 

Constantinople overturned; all Greece shaken, 936. 

England, 1089; Antioch, 1114. 

Catania, in Sicily, overturned; 15,000 persons buried, 1137. 

Lincoln, England, 1142. 

Syria, 20,000 perished, 1158. 

Calabria, a city, with its inhabitants, overwhelmed by the 
Adriatic Sea, September, 1186. 

In Cicilia, 60,000 perished, 1268. 

Greatest known in England, 14 November, 1318. 

At Naples, 40,000 perished, 5 December, 1456. 

Constantinople, thousands perished, 14 September, 1509. 

At Lisbon, 30,000 lost, 26 February, 1531. 

Naples, thirty villages ruined, 70,000 lives lost, 30 July, 1626. 

Schamaki, 80,000 perished, 1667. 

Port Eoyal, Jamaica, West Indies, 3,000 perished, June 7, 1692. 

355 



356 Disastrous Earthquakes of History. 

Sicily, fifty-four cities, 300 villages, 100,000 lives lost. Of Ca- 
tania, with 18,000 inhabitants, not a trace remained, September, 
1693. 

Jeddo, Japan, rained; 200,000 perished, 1703. 

Pekin, 100,000 swallowed up, 1731. 

At Grand Cairo half the houses and 40,000 people lost, 1754. 

Kaschan, North Persia, 40,000 perished, June 7th, 1755. 

The great earthquake at Lisbon, 50,000 lost, November 1st, 1755. 

At Martinique, 1,600 persons perished, August, 1767. 

Vesuvius overwhelmed city of Torre del Greco, June, 1794". 

Santa Fe and Panana, 40,000 lost, 4 February, 1797. 

New Madrid, in lower Mississippi, 1811. 

Caraccas, 12 March, 1812. 

Aleppo destroyed, 20,000 perished, August and 5 September, 
1822. 

At Martinique nearly half of Port Royal destroyed; 700 per- 
sons killed and the whole island damaged, 11 January, 1839. 

Manila much injured, 16-30 September, 1852. 

In seventy-five years, from 1783 to 1857, the Kingdom of 
Naples lost 111,000 persons by earthquakes! 

Java and Sumatra desolated by eruption of Krakatoa, August, 
1883. 

Slight shocks in United States, from Washington to New York, 
August. 10, 11, 1884. 

Charleston, S. C, 41 lives lost, August 31, 1886. 

THE EARTHQUAKE IN ANCIENT SPARTA. 

The earthquake which shook the Peloponnesus of Greece in 
464 B. C. was important in its political bearing, being in this re- 
spect similar to one twenty- two hundred and seventy-six years 
later in far-away South America. This Grecian earthquake 
opened great chasms in the ground and rolled down huge masses 
from the highest peaks of Taygetus. Sparta itself became a heap 
of ruins, in which not more than five houses are said to have been 
left standing. More than 20,000 persons were believed to have 
been destroyed by the shock, and the flower of the Spartan youth 



Disastrous Earthquakes oy History. 357 

was overwhelmed by the fall of those buildings in which they 
were exercising and developing themselves into physical perfec- 
tion. The Helots of Sparta, especially those descended from the 
enslaved Messenians, took advantage of the confusion produced 
by the earthquake to rise in revolt. Having secured possession 
of Ithome, they fortified themselves in the town and withstood 
there a siege of ten years. The Spartans invited the Athenians 
to aid them in the siege, but soon grew jealous of their allies, dis- 
missed them with- some rudeness, and thereby sowed the seed of 
the all-important Peloponnesian war. 

It is significant, however, that the clear-minded Spartans did 
not, like the Venezuelans of a supposedly more enlightened period, 
allow their priests to distort the great natural calamity into a su- 
pernatural terror. 

EARTHQUAKES AT ANTIOCH. 

Early in the year 115 A. D. Antioch, the splendid capital of 
Syria, was visited by an earthquake, one of the most disastrous 
apparently of all the similar inflictions from which that luckless 
city has periodically suffered. The calamity was enhanced by the 
presence of unusual crowds from all the cities of the East, assem- 
bled to pay homage to the Emperor Trajan, or to take part in his 
expedition of conquest to the East. Among the victims were many 
Romans of distinction. Trajan himself only escaped by creeping 
through a window, for the shaken earth is no respecter of persons, 
and as readily engulfs the master of the world of men as it does 
the meanest slave. 

Again in 526, during the reign of Justinian, Antioch was the 
chief sufferer in the earthquakes which then, more than at any 
other period of history, were overwhelming the cities of the Roman 
Empire. Antioch, the metropolis of Asia, was entirely destroyed 
on the 20th of May, 526, at the very time when the inhabitants of 
the adjacent country were assembled to celebrate the festival of 
the Ascension; and it is affirmed that two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand persons were crushed by the fall of its sumptuous edifices. 

Twenty-five years later, on tiie coast of Phoenicia, tlie city of 



358 Disastkous Earthquakes of Histoey. 

Berytus, modern Beirut, whose schools were filled with the rising 
spirits of the age, devoted chiefly to the study of the civil law, was 
destroyed, and with it many a brilliant young fellow, by earth- 
quake, on the 9th of July, 551. 

Gibbon describes thus the earlier earthquake of 365 A. D. : 
"In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on 
the morning of the 21st day of July, the greater part of the Roman 
world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The 
impression was communicated to the waters; the shores of the 
Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea. 
Then the tide returned with the weight of an immense and irre- 
sistible deluge, which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of 
Dalmatia, of Greece and of Egypt. The city of Alexandria com- 
memorated the fatal day on which 50,000 persons lost their lives 
in the inundation." 

In 1692 an earthquake of terrible violence laid waste in less than 
three minutes the flourishing colony of Jamaica. Whole planta- 
tions changed their place ; whole villages were swallowed up. Port 
Royal, the fairest and wealthiest city which the English had yet 
built in the new world, renowned for its quays, its warehouses, and 
for its stately streets, which were said to rival Cheapside, were 
turned into a mass of ruins. Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants 
were buried under their own dwellings. 

THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1755. 

On the morning of the 1st of November, 1755, an earthquake 
was felt from Scotland on the north to mid- Africa on the south, 
and from the Azores on the west to Persia on the east, a region 
three thousand by four thousand miles in extent. In the north 
its effects, as usual with earthquakes in that region, were slight and 
few. The Island of Madeira was laid waste, and the ruin ex- 
tended to Mitylene in the Greek archipelago. In Madrid a 
violent shock was felt, but no buildings and only two human 
beings perished. In Fez and in Morocco, on the contrary, great 
numbers of houses were shaken down, and multitudes of people 
were buried beneath their ruins. How many of the inhabitants 



Disastrous Earthquakes of History. 359 

of the Barbary States perished it is difficult to ascertain from Eu- 
ropean sources, for Christendom, in spite of its Great Teacher's 
injunction to love its neighbor as itself, does not count the dead 
unless they have white skins. Three hundred thousand Chinese 
dead in Haifong seem to affect us less than three hundred Amer- 
icans or Europeans. In the Krakatoa eruption the thirty-seven 
Europeans occasioned more distress than thirty-seven thousand 
men of yellow skin. It is probable, however, that the * ' great mul- 
titudes ' ' of Arabs who perished in 1755 numbered twelve thousand. 

FIFTY THOUSAND SLAIN AT LISBON. 

But the widest and most fearful destruction was reserved for 
Lisbon, capital of Portugal, which had already, in 1531, been 
shaken down with immense loss of life. The population of the city 
was collected in the churches on the 1st of November, it being All 
Saints' Day. At 9 o'clock in the morning all the churches were 
crowded with kneeling worshipers of each sex, all classes and all 
ages, when a sudden and most violent shock made every church 
reel to its foundations. Within the interval of a few minutes two 
other shocks no less violent ensued, and every church in Lisbon, tall 
column and towering spire, was hurled to the ground. Thou- 
sands and thousands of people were crushed to death, and thou- 
sands more grievously maimed, unable to crawl away and left to 
expire in lingering agony. An Englishman, Mr. Chase, in a letter 
to his sister, published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1860, says that 
from his bedroom in the fourth story of an old house, "the most 
horrid prospect that imagination can figure appeared before my 
eyes! The house began to heave to that degree that to prevent 
being thrown down I was obliged to put my arm out of a window 
and support myself by the wall, every stone in the wall separating 
and grinding against each other (as did the walls of the other 
houses with variety of different motions) causing the most dreadful 
crunching, jumbling noise ears ever heard. * * * I 
thought the whole city was sinking into the earth. I saw the tops 
of two pillars meet, and I saw no more." He was thrown to the 
ground from the fourth story, terribly mutilated, endangered by 



360 Disastrous Earthquakes of History. 

the ensuing fires, but finally escaped to give the world the most 
vivid impression of the great disaster. 

The more stately and magnificent the church on that All Saints ' 
Day the more fearful and widespread was the ruin it wrought. 
About one-fourth of all the houses in the city toppled down. The 
encumbered streets could scarce afford an outlet to the fugitives; 
"friends," says an eye-witness, "running from their friends, 
fathers from their children, husbands from their wives, because 
everyone fled away from their habitations full of terror, confusion 
and distraction." The earth seemed to heave and quiver like an 
animated being. The sun was darkened by the clouds of lurid 
dust that arose. Frantic with fear, a headlong multitude rushed 
for safety to a large and newly built stone pier which jutted out 
into the Tagus, when a sudden convulsion of the river bottom 
turned the pier bottom uppermost, like a ship on its keel in a tem- 
pest, and then engulfed it. Of all the living creatures that thronged 
it— full three thousand, it is said— not one, even as a corpse, ever 
rose again. 

From the banks of the river other crowds were looking 
on in speechless affright, when the river itself came rushing in 
upon them in a torrent, though against wind and tide. It rose at 
least fifteen feet above the highest spring tides, and then again 
subsided, drawing in or dashing to pieces everything within its 
reach, while the very ships in the harbor were violently hurled 
about. Earth and water alike seemed let loose as scourges upon 
the devoted city. "Indeed, every element," said a person present, 
"seemed to conspire to our destruction, for in about two hours 
after the shock fires broke out in three different parts of the city, 
occasioned by household goods and kitchen fires being jumbled 
together." At this time also the wind blew into a fresh gale, 
which made the fires spread in extent and rage with fury during 
three days, until there remained but little for them to devour. 
Many of the maimed and wounded are believed to have perished 
unseen and unheeded in the flames ; some few were almost mirac- 
ulously restored after being for whole days buried where they fell, 
without light or food or hope. The total number of deaths was 
computed at the time as about thirty thousand. Other estimates 



Disastrous Earthquakes op History. 361 

give fifty and even a hundred thousand, but until our own careful 
age reports of earthquakes commonly exaggerate the loss of life. 

EARTHQUAKE AT VENEZUELA. 

On the 26th of March, 1812, Venezuela was visited by a fearful 
earthquake, of which the political effect was even more important 
than the physical. The capital, Caraccas, and several other towns, 
were destroyed, together with 20,000 people. Many others per- 
ished of hunger and in other ways, even as some of the people of 
Martinique perished, and as more would have perished had it not 
been for the prompt assistance of the United States and other na- 
tions. But the 26th of March, 1812, was Holy Thursday; and the 
superstitious people, prompted by their priests, believed the awful 
catastrophe wrought by the forces of Nature to be a visitation and 
judgment from God upon them for their revolt against their Span- 
ish masters, whose rule the congress of their provinces had thrown 
off. The Spanish troops, under Monteverde, began a fresh at- 
tack upon the disquieted Venezuelans. The revolutionary leader, 
Miranda, head of the army, had overrun New Granada and laid 
the foundation of the future United States of Colombia. But the 
face of affairs was changed by news of the earthquake. Smitten 
with despair, his soldiers deserted to the Royalists ; he lost ground 
everywhere; the fortress of Puerto Cavello, commanded by the 
great Bolivar, then a Colonel in the service of the Republic, was 
surrendered through treachery, and three months after the earth- 
quake, Miranda himself was obliged to capitulate with all his forces, 
and Venezuela fell once more into the hands of the Royalists. 

Lest we of the United States should flatter ourselves that our 
nation would be superior to such childish superstition, we should 
remind ourselves that in our cities and throughout our land the 
Second Adventists are now solemnly affirming and vehemently 
preaching that the eruption of Mont Pelee is but the beginning 
of the destruction of the world for supernatural purposes. There 
is, however, this in our favor, that while the superstition of the 
Venezuelans led them, guided by their priests, to a base betrayal 
of their country's cause, the superstition of the ignorant preachers 
of the end of the world has no such shameful moral consequence, 
and is rather to be pitied than denounced. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, HURRICANES, AND TORNADOES. 

Whirlwinds — How Caused- — Velocity — The Dread of the Desert — Cyclones- 
How Eormed — Course — Velocity— Where They Take Place — Damage Done 
— Hurricanes— How Formed — Danger— Course — Climax — Track— Phenom- 
ena — Cause of Tornadoes— Their Appearance — Damage Done — When They 
Occur — What to Do. 

In enumerating the world 's disasters, it may not be out of place 
to stop and briefly glance at the terrible havoc wrought by wind- 
storms, their immediate cause and the danger attending them. 

First under the head of windstorms may be mentioned whirl- 
winds. These are most frequent in the desert, where the earth is 
level, the heat extreme, and the air at rest. Whirlwinds occur dur- 
ing the day, when the sun has warmed the earth and the earth in 
turn has warmed the lower strata of air, the atmosphere becoming 
cooler as its altitude from the earth increases. The air is also 
denser and heavier at the earth's surface because the attraction of 
the earth pulls it down, causing the upper air to rest upon the lower. 

Scientific research shows that whirlwinds are caused mainly by 
heat. The high temperature and density of the lower air disturbs 
the equilibrium, hence the whirl. The height and distance to which 
the whirls extend depend upon circumstances, the location and the 
opposition it meets. In regions not flat, the lower air flows in from 
the slopes as it becomes heated and the whirl is gradually destroyed. 

Whirlwinds frequently become of great size and do great dam- 
age, the air in motion carrying light objects upward to a height of 
thousands of feet. The whirling is usually accompanied by a roar- 
ing sound, and the narrower the path the faster the motion and the 
louder the noise. The desert sand storms often swallow up whole 
caravans, hence have come to bear the name of "devil" from the 
evil way in which they come and go and the destruction they bring 

about. 

CYCLONES. 

Cyclones are somewhat similar in effect to whirlwinds, but their 
cause embraces new elements. Besides level surface and intense 

362 



Whirlwinds, Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Tornadoes. 363 

heat, they are influenced by the earth's rotation and the condensing 
of vapor.. The cyclones of the Bay of Bengal have been studied 
with great care, and meteorologists are a unit in concluding they 
arise much as the desert whirlwind does— in a place of heat and 
quiet. The calm that precedes a cyclone is always noticeable ; the 
air is close and oppressively warm ; the water all around is smooth 
and peaceful. The greater the calm and composure and the longer 
the preparatory stage, the more fearful the storm. This calm is. in 
fact the embryo of the cyclone. Cyclones which take place in the 
tropics are attended by heavy rain due to the vapor condensing at 
the center and falling to the earth. When on sea, cyclones often 
last for days and do untold damage. 

The regions encompassed by cyclones are the seas "south and 
east of India and China, in the location of the West Indian 
Islands, around Madagascar and near Australia. They invariably 
run westward near the equator, then turn to the pole and obliquely 
turn eastward again. 

A remarkable feature regarding cyclones is that no violent ones 
have so far occurred within 400 miles of the equator, this being due 
to the earth's rotation, which at this point is zero. There would be 
no violent storms if the earth stood still. 

HTJERICANES. 

The origin of a hurricane is not fully settled. Its accompany- 
ing phenomena, however, are significant to even the casual observer. 
A long swell on the ocean usually precedes it. This swell may be 
forced to great distances in advance of the storm and be observed 
two or three days before the storm strikes. A faint rise in the 
barometer may be noticed before the sharp fall follows. Wisps 
of thin, cirrus cloud float for 200 miles around the storm center. 
The air is calm and sultry until a gentle breeze springs from the 
southeast. This breeze becomes a wind, a gale, and, finally, a 
tempest, with matted clouds overhead, precipitating rain and a 
churning sea below throwing clouds of spume into the air. 

Here are all the terrible phenomena of the West Indian hurri- 
cane—the tremendous wind, the thrashing sea, the lightning, the 



361 Whirlwinds, Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Tornadoes. 

bellowing thunder, and the drowning rain that seems to be dashed 
from mighty tanks with the force of Titans. 

But almost in an instant all these may cease. The wind dies, 
the lightning goes out, the rain ceases, and the thunder bellows 
only in the distance. The core of the storm is overhead. Only 
the waves of the sea are churning. There may be twenty miles 
of this central core, a diameter of only one-thirtieth that of the 
storm. It passes quickly, and with as little warning as preceded 
its stoppage the storm closes in again, but with the wind from the 
opposite direction, and the whole phenomena suggesting a reversal 
of all that has gone before. 

The cyclone is confined to a narrow track and it has no long- 
drawn-out horrors. Its climax is reached in a moment. The hurri- 
cane, however, grows and grows, and when it has reached to 100 or 
120 miles an hour nothing can withstand it. 

No storm possible in the elements presents the terrors that 
accompany the hurricane. 

No more graphic portrayal of the hurricane is found in liter- 
ature than that of L'Isle Derniere by Lafcadio Hearn, which we 
here reprint: 

"One great noon, when the blue abyss of day seemed to yawn 
over the world more deeply than ever before, a sudden change 
touched the quicksilver smoothness of the waters— the swaying 
shadow of a vast motion. First the whole sea circle appeared to 
rise up bodily at the sky; the horizon curve lifted to a straight 
line; the line darkened and approached— a monstrous wrinkle, an 
immeasurable fold of green water moving swift as a cloud shadow 
pursued by sunlight. But it had looked formidable only by start- 
ling contrast with the previous placidity of the open ; it was scarcely 
two feet high ; it curled slowly as it neared the beach and combed 
itself out in sheets of woolly foam with a low, rich roll of thunder. 
Swift in pursuit another followed— a third, a feebler fourth; then 
the sea only swayed a little and stilled again. 

"Irregularly the phenomenon continued to repeat itself, each 
time with heavier billowings and briefer intervals of quiet, until 
at last the whole sea grew restless and shifted color and flickered 
green— the swells became shorter and changed form. 



# 



Whirlwinds, Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Tornadoes. 365 

"The pleasure-seekers of Last Island knew there must have 
been a 'great blow' somewhere that day. Still the sea swelled, and 
a splendid surf made the evening bath delightful. Then just at 
sundown a beautiful cloud bridge grew up and arched the sky with 
a single span of cottony, pink vapor that changed and deepened 
color with the dying of the iridescent day. And the cloud bridge 
approached, strained and swung round at last to make way for the 
coming of the gale— even as the light bridges that traverse the 
dreamy Teche swing open when the luggermen sound through their 
conch shells the long, bellowing signal of approach. 

"Then the wind began to blow from the northeast, clear, cool. 
* * * Clouds came, flew as in a panic against the face of the 
sun, and passed. All that day, through the night, and into the 
morning again the breeze continued from the northeast, blowing 
like an equinoctial gale. ***** 

' ' Cottages began to rock. Some slid away from the solid props 
upon which they rested. A chimney tumbled. Shutters were 
wrenched off; verandas demolished, light roofs lifted, dropped 
again, and flapped into ruins. Trees bent their heads to earth. And 
still the storm grew louder and blacker with every passing hour. 

"So the hurricane passed, tearing off the heads of prodigious 
waves to hurl them a hundred feet in air, heaping up the ocean 
against the land— upturning the woods. Bays and passes were 
swollen to abysses; rivers regorged; the sea marshes changed to 
roaring wastes of water. Before New Orleans the flood of the mile- 
broad Mississippi rose six feet above highest water mark. One 
hundred and ten miles away Donaldsonville trembled at the tower- 
ing tide of the Lafourche. Lakes strove to burst their boundaries ; 
far-off river steamers tugged wildly at their cables, shivering like 
tethered creatures that hear by night the approaching howl of the 
destroyer. ' ' 

Statistics show the number of hurricanes in the West Indies in 
the last 400 years to be about an average of one a year. More than 
three-fourths of these have occurred during the months of July, 
August and September. The balance of the trade winds breaks 
the force by friction and they are thus destroyed. Cyclones, 



366 Whirlwinds, Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Tornadoes. 

once formed, are carried westward toward the West Indies. They 
then move a little to the northwest and strike the United States, 
doing little or no damage according to the force. This undoubtedly 
explains the destruction of Galveston in the year 1900. 

T0BNAD0ES— HOW THEY DIFFER FROM OTHER STORMS. 

Tornadoes differ from other storms in their excessive violence, 
their restricted area and their rapid advance. They are most 
numerous in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Their greatest fre- 
quency is in the afternoons of May, June and July. Quiet and calm 
usually precede them. Their advance is to the northeast and at the 
rate of thirty miles an hour. When first observed they are usually 
a dark, funnel-shaped mass hanging from dark clouds. A roar- 
ing sound is heard all along the track. Within its funnel various 
objects may be detected which have been snatched from the ground 
in transit. At varying heights these objects are thrown out of the 
current and dropped with violence. There is seldom time to escape 
their track, yet one should make every effort to do so, provided they 
keep their presence of mind. Usually the storm has come and gone 
before they have had time to think. 

The wind during the tornado often travels 100 miles an hour. 
In the trail of the storm's path strange freaks of nature are often 
seen; clothing is torn to rags, doors split to atoms, wheat driven 
many feet into the ground ; sister trees standing side by side, a few 
feet apart, one taken, the other left. The track averages only about 
one-half mile in width and the greatest destruction is frequently 
done within a hundred feet. 

An illustration of the damage clone by these storms came under 
my observation not long since. A family, in attempting to save 
their lives, instantly rushed out of the house. The mother was car- 
ried three hundred yards, thrown against a barn and killed; a 
boy of seven years was unharmed, the father and baby killed, and 
the house, a small frame building, was picked up and carried a half 
mile away and carefully set down as though nothing had disturbed 
it. But stranger still, it frequently happens that in houses where 
the windows and doors have been closed, the house explodes ; roofs 
are carried away, doors and windows broken outward, showing 
that the heated air makes its own way of escape. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 

Great Disaster in the United States — Loss of Life in Johnstown Flood — 
Men, "Women and Children — Breaking of Dam in Conemaugh Lake — 
People Warned— Relief Quick— Damage of Other Towns— Communication 
Cut Off — Fire and Darkness Add Horror — Cambria City Swept Away, 
Millville Gone, \¥oodville and South Fork Wrecked — Stories by Sur- 
vivors — Identification of Bodies, Clearing the Debris. 

In the shadow of the awful catastrophy on the Island of Mar- 
tinique, the great disasters that have befallen in the United States 
through the anger of the elements come back with renewed force. 
Galveston, so recently in the clutches of despair, and Johnstown, 
that was swept away just twelve years before Mount Pelee blew 
upon the city of St. Pierre its breath of destruction causes us as a 
people to stop and think. 

ClUESTIQIOTG THE POWERS THAT BE. 

It is these awful tragedies visited upon the people of certain 
districts without seeming reason that cause rebellion in the heart 
of the questioning. Man is more merciful than his Creator, cries 
the skeptic, Who that pretends to be actuated by the least of human 
sensibilities would treat his children with such needless severity? 
There is no way to answer such questions except as the scientist, 
answers them, that nature is nothing but a passionless, unthinking 
force, and the laws that operate are changeless. In that way man 
can understand something of the universe as a whole, but under- 
standing does not lessen the pain caused by even a knowledge of 
such disasters. Were man as heartless as we are told nature is, 
what must then be the sufferings of the unfortunates that are sud- 
denly cast homeless and friendless upon the world, their savings 
swept away, their bodies sorely bruised, if not wounded to the 
death ! 

But there is charity in the world and, when something happens 

367 



368 The Johnstown Flood. 

to thoroughly arouse the sympathies, there is a love that passeth un- 
derstanding. It is such horrors as the recent volcanic eruption in 
Martinique, the Galveston tidal wave, 'and the Johnstown flood that 
prove the divinity, the brotherhood of man. 

FIRST GREAT DISASTER IN THE TOOTED STATES. 

Previous to the year 1900, the Johnstown disaster was the most 
frightful calamity known in the history of the United States. It 
occurred on Friday, May 31st, 1889, at 12 :45 p. m. Johnstown was 
situated in the Conemaugh Valley in Pennsylvania. It was a town 
of 30,000 inhabitants. Above it in the mountains slept the waters 
of the Conemaugh Lake, a beautiful body of water formed by build- 
ing a dam across a deep gorge in the mountain. With not even a 
warning shout to apprise the inhabitants the dam gave way, and 
that great mass of water came leaping and tumbling down the valley 
to Johnstown, and the city with its inhabitants was drowned in a 
flood of angry waters. When the deluge subsided where had stood 
the homes of so many happy toilers, there were but twisted and 
shapeless piles of driftwood and the bodies of the dead and dying. 

LOSS OF LIFE. 

From the lake to Johnstown in a straight line was but two and 
a half miles, but following the winding valley the waters had to 
cover thirteen miles before they struck the town. But the flood 
moved with such terrific speed that within a few minutes after the 
breaking of the dam nearly 2,300 men, women and children were 
lying dead in the wreckage of the city ; millions of dollars ' worth 
of property were destroyed, and thousands of people beggared. 

Hundreds of business buildings and residences were destroyed, 
and less than a score of the structures composing the town were 
uninjured; complete paralysis followed, and many said, as in the 
case of Galveston, the city would not be rebuilt; hundreds were 
crazed by their sufferings and never regained their reason ; thieves 
swarmed to the place and looted the bodies of the dead until the 
arrival of several thousand State troops put an end to the carnival 



The Johnstown Flood. 3G9 

of crime; the impoverished survivors were cared for until they 
could get upon their feet again, relief pouring in from everywhere 
in the shape of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and thou- 
sands of carloads of supplies of all sorts ; the business men plucked 
up courage and went to work with a will when the apathy succeed- 
ing the calamity had worn off, and to-day Johnstown is greater than 
ever, and has added to both her wealth and population. 

CONEMAUGH IAKE— ITS LOCATION. 

Conemaugh Lake is three and one-half miles in length, one and 
one-quarter miles in width, and in some places one hundred feet in 
depth, located on a mountain three hundred feet above the level of 
Johnstown, its waters being held within bounds by a huge earth 
dam nearly one thousand feet long, ninety feet thick and one hun- 
dred and twenty feet in height, the top having a breadth of over 
twenty feet. It was once a reservoir and a feeder for the Penn- 
sylvania Canal. It had been widened and deepened and was the 
property of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an organi- 
zation of rich and influential citizens of Pittsburg. It was a. con- 
stant menace to the residents of the Conemaugh Valley, but engi- 
neers of the Pennsylvania Railroad regularly inspected it once a 
month and pronounced it safe. 

The club leased the lake in 1881 from the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company. It paid no attention to the fears of the people of Johns- 
town, but merely quoted the opinions of experts to the effect that 
nothing short of an extraordinary convulsion of nature could affect 
the protecting dam. 

Johnstown's geographical situation is one that renders it pecu- 
liarly liable to terrible loss of life in the event of such a casualty as 
that reported. It is a town built in a, basin of the mountains and 
girt about by streams, all of which finally find their way into the 
Allegheny River, and thence into the Ohio. On one side of the town 
flows the Conemaugh River, a stream which during the dry periods 
of the summer drought can be readily crossed in many places by 
stepping from stone to stone, but which speedily becomes a raging 
mountain torrent, when swollen by the spring freshets or heavy 
summer rains. 



370 The Johnstown Flood. 

On the other side of the town is the Stony Creek, which gathers 
up its own share of the mountain rains and whirls them along 
toward Pittsburg. The awful flood caused by the sudden outpour- 
ing of the contents of the reservoir, together with the torrents of 
rain that had already swollen these streams to triple their usual 
violence, is supposed to be the cause of the sudden submersion of 
Johnstown and the drowning of so many of its citizens. The water, 
unable to find its way rapidly enough through its usual channels, 
piled up in overwhelming masses, carrying before it everything 
that obstructed its onward rush upon the town. 

PEOPLE HAD BEEN WARNED. 

Johnstown, the center of the great disaster, is on the main line 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 276 miles from Philadelphia. It is 
the headquarters of the great Cambria Iron Company, and its acres 
of ironworks fill the narrow basin in which the city is situated. 
The rolling mill and Bessemer steel works employ 6,000 men. The 
mountains rise quite abruptly almost on all sides, and the railroad 
track, which follows the turbulent course of the Conemaugh River, 
is above the level of the iron works. The summit of the Allegheny 
mountains is reached at Gallatizin, about twenty-four miles east of 
Johnstown. 

The people of Johnstown had been warned of the impending 
flood as early as 1 o'clock in the afternoon, but not a person living 
near the reservoir knew that the dam had given way until the flood 
swept the houses off their foundations and tore the timbers apart. 
Escape from the torrent was impossible. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
road hastily made up trains to get as many people away as possible, 
and thus saved many lives. 

OTHER TOWNS WRECKED. 

Four miles below the dam lay the town of South Fork, where 
the South Fork itself empties into the Conemaugh River. The 
town contained about 2,000 inhabitants, and four-fifths of it was 
swept away. 

Four miles further down, on the Conemaugh River, which runs 



The Johxstowx Flood. 371 

parallel with the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was the 
town of Mineral Point. It had 800 inhabitants, 90 per cent of the 
honses being on a flat and close to the river. Few of them escaped. 

Six miles further down was the town of Conemaugh, and here 
alone was there a topographical possibility of the spreading of the 
flood and the breaking of its force. It contained 2,500 inhabitants 
and was wholly devastated. 

Woodvale, with 2,000 people, lay a mile below Conemaugh, in 
the flat, and one mile further down were Johnstown and its cluster 
of sister towns, Cambria City, Conemaugh borough, with a total 
population of 30,000. 

On made ground, and stretching along right at the river verge, 
were the immense iron works of the Cambria Iron and Steel Com- 
pany, which had $5,000,000 invested in the plant. 

REBOUND OF FLOOD. 

The great damage to Johnstown was largely due to the rebound 
of the flood after it swept across. The wave spread against the 
stream of Stony Creek and passed over Kernsville to a depth of 
thirty feet in some places. It was related that the lumber boom had 
broken on Stony Creek, and the rash of tide down stream, coming 
in contact with the spreading wave, increased the extent of the dis- 
aster in this section. In Kernsville, as well as in Hornerstown, 
across the river, the opinion was expressed that so many lives would 
not have been lost had the people not believed from their experience 
with former floods that there was positively no danger beyond the 
filling of cellars or the overflow of the shores of the river. After 
rushing down the mountains from the South Fork dam, the pres- 
sure of water was so great that it forced its way against the nat- 
ural channel not only over Kernsville and Hornerstown, but all the 
way up to Grubbtown, on Stony Creek. 

By the terrible flood communication by rail and wire was nearly 
all cut off. 

FIRE ADDS HORROR TO THE WRECK. 

The exact number of the victims of this dreadful disaster prob- 
ably will never be known. Bodies were found beyond Pittsburg, 



372 The Johnstown Flood. 

which in all probability were carried to that place from Johnstown 
and its suburbs. The terrible holocaust at the barricade of wrecks 
at the bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad below Johnstown, where 
hundreds of men, women and children who were saved from the 
waves were burned to death, caused a terrible loss of life. The loss 
of property was about $10,000,000. 

EVERYTHING OVER IN A FEW MINUTES. 

All was over in a few moments ' time. The flood rushed down 
the valley when released from its prison, swept earth, trees, houses 
and human beings before it, depositing the vast debris in front of 
the railroad bridge, which formed an impassable barrier to the 
passage of everything except the vast agent of destruction— the 
flood— which overflowed it and passed on to wreak fresh vengeance 
below. 

GORGE AT THE RAILROAD BRIDGE. 

One of the most terrible sights was the gorge at the railroad 
bridge. This gorge consisted of debris of all kinds welded into an 
almost solid mass. Here were the charred timbers of houses and 
the charred and mutilated remains of human beings. The fire at 
this point, which lasted until June 3 and had still some of its vitality 
left on the 5th, was one of the incidents of the Johnstown disaster 
that will become historic. The story has not been and cannot be 
fully told. One could not look at it without a shock to his sensi- 
bilities. So tangled and unyielding was the mass that even dyna- 
mite had little effect upon it. One deplorable effect, however, was 
to dismember the few parts of human bodies wedged in the mass 
that the ruthless flood left whole. 

From the western end of the railroad bridge the view was but 
a prelude to the views that were to follow. Looking across the 
gorge the first object the eye caught in the ruined town is the Mel- 
ville school, standing as a guardian over the dead— a solitary sen- 
tinel left on the field after the battle. Still further on and near the 
center of the town were the offices and stores of the Cambria Iron 
Company, the most populous and busy part of the city until the 



The Johnstown" Flood. 373 

31st of May. Part of the ground was covered by a part of the shops 
of the Cambria Company. Not a vestige of these remained. 

THE GREAT STORM OF FRIDAY. 

"When the great storm of Friday came the dam was again a 
source of uneasiness, and early in the morning the people of Johns- 
town were warned that the dam was weakening. They had heard 
the same warning too often, however, to be impressed, and many 
jeered at their informants. Some of those that jeered were before 
nightfall scattered along the banks of the Conemaugh, cold in death, 
or met their fate in the blazing pile of wrecked houses wedged 
together at the big stone bridge. Only a few heeded the warning, 
and these made their way to the hillside, where they were safe. 

Early in the day the flood caused by the heavy rains swept 
through the streets of Johnstown. Every little mountain stream 
was swollen by the rains ; rivulets became creeks and creeks were 
turned into rivers. The Conemaugh, with a bed too narrow to hold 
its greatly increased body of water, overflowed its banks, and the 
damage caused by this overflow alone would have been large. But 
there was more to come, and the results were so appalling that 
there lived not a human being who was likely to anticipate them. 

At 1 o'clock in the afternoon the resistless flood tore away the 
huge lumber boom on Stony Creek. This was the real beginning 
of the end. The enormous mass of logs was hurled down upon the 
doomed town. The lines of the two water courses were by this 
time obliterated, and Stony Creek and the Conemaugh Eiver were 
raging seas. The great lqgs levelled everything before them, crush- 
ing frame houses like eggshells and going on unchecked until the 
big seven-arch stone bridge over the Conemaugh River just below 
Johnstown was reached. 

THE QSTLY POSSIBLE WAY. 

Had the logs passed this bridge Johnstown might have been 
spared much of its horror. There were already dead and dying, 
and homes had already been swept away, but the dead could only 



374 The Johnstown Flood. 

be counted by dozens and not yet by thousands. Wedged fast at 
the bridge, the logs formed an impenetrable barrier. People had 
moved to the second floor of their houses and hoped that the flood 
might subside. There was no longer a chance to get away, and 
had they known what was in store for them the contemplation of 
their fate would have been enough to make them stark mad. Only 
a few hours had elapsed from the time of the breaking of the lum- 
ber boom when the waters of Conemaugh Lake rushed down upon 
them. The scoffers realized their folly. The dam had given way, 
and the immense body of water which had rested in a basin five 
miles long, two miles wide and seventy feet deep was let loose to 
begin its work of destruction. 

The towering wall of water swooped down upon Johnstown 
with a force that carried everything before it. Had it been able 
to pass through the big stone bridge a portion of Johnstown might 
have been saved. The rampart of logs, however, checked the tor- 
rent and half the houses of the town were lifted from their founda- 
tions and hurled against it. This backed the water up into the 
town, and as there had to be an outlet somewhere the river made a 
new channel through the heart of the lower part of the city. Again 
and again did the flood hurl itself against the bridge, and each 
wave carried with it houses, furniture and human beings. The 
bridge stood firm, but the railway embankment gave way, and some 
fifty people were carried down to their deaths in the new break. 
Through this new outlet the waters were diverted in the direction 
of the Cambria Iron Works, a mile below, and in a moment the 
great buildings of a plant valued at $5,000,000 were engulfed and 
laid low. Here had gathered a number of iron workers, who felt 
that they were out of the reach of the flood, and almost before they 
realized their peril they were swept away into the seething torrent. 

DARKNESS ABBS EOEEOE. 

It was now night, and darkness added to the terror of the sit- 
uation. Then came flames to make the calamity all the more ap- 
palling. Hundreds of buildings had been piled up against the 
stone bridge, The inmates of but few of them had had time to 



The Johnstown Flood. 375 

escape. Just how many people were imprisoned in that mass of 
wreckage may never be known, but the number was estimated at 
between 1,000 and 2,000. The wreckage was piled to a height of 
fifty feet, and suddenly flames began leaping up from the summit. 
A stove had set fire to that part of the wreck above the water, and 
the scene that was then witnessed is beyond description. Shrieks 
and prayers from the unhappy beings imprisoned in the wrecked 
houses pierced the air, but little could be done. Men, women and 
children, held down by timbers, watched with indescribable agony 
the flames creep slowly toward them until the heat scorched their 
faces, and then they were slowly roasted to death. 

Those who were held fast in the wreck by an arm or a leg begged 
piteously that the imprisoned limb be cut off. Some succeeded in 
getting loose with mangled limbs, and one man cut off his arm that 
he might get away. Those who were able worked like demons to 
save the unfortunates from the flames, but hundreds were burned 
to death. 

CAMBRIA CITY SWEPT AWAY. 

Meanwhile Johnstown had been literally wiped from the face 
of the earth, Cambria City was swept away and Conemaugh bor- 
ough was a thing of the past. The little village of Millville, with a 
population of one thousand, had nothing left of it but the school 
house and the stone buildings of the Cambria Iron Company. 
Woodvale was gone and South Fork wrecked. Hundreds of people 
were drowned in their homes, hundreds were swept away in their 
dwellings and met death in the debris that was whirled madly about 
on the surface of the flood ; hundreds, as has been said, were burned, 
and hundreds who sought safety on floating driftwood were over- 
whelmed by the flood or washed to death against obstructions. The 
instances of heroism and self-sacrifice were never excelled, per- 
haps not equaled, on a battle-field. Men rather than save them- 
selves alone died nobly with their families, and mothers willingly 
gave up their lives rather than abandon their children. 

"At 3 o'clock in the afternoon," said Electrician Bender, of the 
Western Union at Pittsburg, "the girl operator at Johnstown was 
cheerfully ticking away; she soon had to abandon the office on the 



376 The Johnstown Flood. 

first floor because the water was three feet deep there. She said 
she was wiring from the second story, and the water was gaining 
steadily. She was frightened, and said that many houses around 
were flooded. This was evidently before the dam broke, for our 
man here said something encouraging to her, and she was talking 
back as only a cheerful girl operator can when the receiver's skilled 
ears caught a sound of the wire made by no human hand. The 
wires had grounded or the house had been swept away in the flood, 
no one knows which now. At 3 o'clock the girl was there and at 
3 :07 we might as well have asked the grave to answer us. ' ' 

DEEDS OF HEBOISM. 

Edward Deck, a young railroad man of Lockport, saw an old 
man floating down the river on a tree trunk, with agonized face and 
streaming gray hair. Deck plunged into the torrent and brought 
the old man safely ashore. Scarcely had he done so when the 
upper story of a house floated by on which Mrs. Adams, of Cam- 
bria, and her two children were both seen. Deck plunged in again, 
and while breaking through the tin roof of the house cut an artery 
in his left wrist, but though weakened with loss of blood, he suc- 
ceeded in saving both mother and children. 

J. W. Esch, a brave railroad employe, saved sixteen lives at 
Nineveh. 

At Bolivar a man, woman and child were seen floating down in 
a lot of drift. The mass of debris commenced to part, and by des- 
perate efforts the husband and father succeeded in getting his wife 
and little one on a floating tree. Just then the tree washed under 
the bridge and a rope was thrown out. It fell upon the man's 
shoulders. He saw at a glance that he could not save his dear ones, 
so he threw the means of safety to one side and gripped in his 
arms those who were with him. A moment later the tree struck a 
floating house. It turned over, and in a second the three persons 
were in the seething waters, being carried to their death. 

C. W. Hoppenstall of Lincoln avenue, East End, Pittsburg, dis- 
tinguished himself by his bravery. He was a messenger on the 
mail train which had to turn back at Sang Hollow. As the train 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

CASTRIES, ISLAND OF ST. LUCIA. 
The beautiful trees shown on this island are the Banyan, 
luxuriantly in all of the West Indian Islands. 



They grow very 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

BIBDSEYE VIEW OF THE TOWN OF CHARLOTTE, ISLAND OF ST. THOMAS. 
This island is the largest and most prosperous in the Danish West Indies. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

TOWN OF ST. KITTS, ISLAND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER. 
The above picture shows another of the West Indian Islands, belonging to Great 

Britain. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

STREET SCENE, BRIDGETOWN, ISLAND OE BARBADOS. 
To the right is a beautiful estate, showing that even in this island there is much 

wealth as well as poverty. 



The Johnstown Flood. 379 

passed a point where the water was full of struggling persons, a 
woman and child floated in near shore. The train was stopped and 
Hoppenstall undressed, jumped into the water, and in two trips 
saved both mother and child. 

The special train pulled in at Bolivar at 11 :30 o'clock and train- 
men were notified that further progress was impossible. The great- 
est excitement prevailed at this place, and parties of citizens were 
all the time endeavoring to save the poor unfortunates that were 
being hurled to eternity on the rushing torrent. 

SCENES AT BOLIVAR; 

The tidal wave struck Bolivar just after dark and in five min- 
utes the Conemaugh rose from six to forty feet and the waters 
spread out over the whole country. Soon houses began floating 
down, and clinging to the debris were men, women and children, 
shrieking for aid. A large number of citizens at once gathered on 
the county bridge and they were re-enforced by a number from Gar- 
field, a town on the opposite side of the river. They brought a 
number of ropes, and these were thrown into the boiling waters as 
persons drifted by in efforts to save some poor beings. For half 
an hour all efforts were fruitless, until at last, when the rescuers 
were about giving up all hope, a little boy astride a shingle roof 
managed to catch hold of one of the ropes. He caught it under 
his left arm and was thrown violently against an abutment, but 
managed to keep hold, and was successfully pulled on to the bridge, 
amid the cheers of the onlookers. His name was Hessler, and his 
rescuer was a train hand named Carney. The Jad was taken to 
the town of Garfield and cared for in the home of J. P. Robinson. 
The boy was about 16 years old. 

STORY BY A SURVIVOR. 

His story of the frightful calamity is as follows: "With my 
father I was spending the day at my grandfather's house in Cam- 
bria City. In the house at the time were Theodore, Edward and 
John Kintz, and John Kintz, Jr., Miss Mary Kintz, Mrs. Mary 



380 The Johnstown Flood. 

Kintz, wife of John Kintz, Jr., Miss Tracy Kintz, Miss Kachel 
Smith, John Hirsch, four children, my father and myself. Short- 
ly after 5 o 'clock there was a noise of roaring waters and screams 
of people. We looked out the door and saw persons running. My 
father told us not to mind, as the waters would not rise further. 
But soon we saw houses being swept away, and then we ran to the 
floor above. The house was three stories, and we were at last 
forced to the top one. In my fright I jumped on the bed. It was 
an old-fashioned one with heavy posts. The water kept rising and 
my bed was soon afloat. Gradually it was lifted up. The air in 
the room grew close and the house was moving. Still the bed kept 
rising and pressed the ceiling. At last the post pushed the plaster. 
It yielded and a section of the roof gave way. Then suddenly I 
found myself on the roof and was being carried down stream. 
After a little this roof commenced to part, and I was afraid I was 
going to be drowned, but just then another house with a single 
roof floated by and I managed to crawl on it, and floated down 
until, nearly dead with cold, when I was saved. After I was freed 
from the house I did not see my father. My grandfather was on 
a tree, but he must have been drowned, as the waters were rising 
fast. John Kintz, Jr., was also on a tree. Miss Mary Kintz and 
Mrs. Mary Kintz I saw drowned. Miss Smith was also drowned. 
John Hirsch was in a tree, but the four children were drowned. 
The scenes were terrible. Live bodies and corpses were floating 
down with me and away from me. I would hear persons shriek, 
and then they would disappear. All along the line were people 
who were trying to save us, but. they could do nothing, and only a 
few were caught *" 

The boy's story is but one incident, and shows what happened 
to one family. God only knows what has happened to the hun- 
dreds who were in the path of the rushing water. It is impos- 
sible to get anything in the way of news, save meagre details. 

ANOTHER EYE-WITNESS. 

An eye-witness at Bolivar Block Station tells a story of unpar- 
alleled horror which occurred at the lower bridge, which crosses the 
Conemaugh at this point. A young man and two women were seen 



The Johnstown Flood. 381 

coming down the river on a part of a floor. At the upper bridge a 
rope was thrown them. This they all failed to catch. Between the 
two bridges the man was noticed to point toward the elder woman, 
who, it is supposed, was his mother. He was then seen to instruct 
the women how to catch the rope which was being lowered from 
the other bridge. Down came the raft with a rush. The brave 
man stood with his arms around the two women. As they swept 
under the bridge he reached up and seized the rope. He was jerked 
violentfy away from the two women, who failed to get a hold on the 
life line. Seeing that they would not be rescued he dropped the 
rope and fell back on the raft, which floated on down. The cur- 
rent washed the frail craft in toward the bank. The young man 
was enabled to seize hold of a branch of a tree. The young man 
aided the two women to get up into the tree. He held on with his 
hands and rested his feet on a pile of driftwood. A piece of float- 
ing debris struck the drift, sweeping it away. The man hung with 
his body immersed in the water. A pile of drift soon collected, 
and he was enabled to get another secure footing. Up the river 
there was a sudden crash and a section of the bridge was swept 
away and floated down the stream, striking the tree and washing 
it away. All three were thrown into the water and were drowned 
before the eyes of the horrified spectators just opposite the town 
of Bolivar. 

Early in the evening a woman with her two children were seen 
to pass under the bridge at Bolivar, clinging to the roof of a coal 
house. A rope was lowered to her, but she shook her head and 
refused to desert the children. It was rumored that all three were 
saved at Cokeville, a few miles below Bolivar. A later report from 
Lockport says that the residents succeeded in rescuing five people 
from the flood, two women and three men. One man succeeded in 
getting out of the water unaided. They were kindly taken care of 
by the people of the town. 

A little girl passed under the bridge just before dark. She 
was kneeling on a part of a floor and had her hands clasped as if 
in prayer. Every effort was made to save her, but they all proved 
futile. A railroader who was standing by remarked that the pit- 
eous appearance of the little waif brought tears to his eyes. All 



382 The Johnstown Flood. 

night long the crowd stood about the ruins of the bridge, which had 
been swept away at Bolivar. The water rushed past with a roar, 
carrying with it parts of houses, furniture and trees. The flood 
had evidently spent its force up the valley. No more living per- 
sons were being carried past. Watchers with lanterns remained 
along the banks until daybreak, when the first view of the awful 
devastation of the flood was witnessed. 

CRAZED BY THEIFv SUFFERINGS. 

When the great waves of death swept through Johnstown the 
people who had an} 7 chance of escape ran hither and thither in 
every direction. They did not have any definite idea where they 
were going, only that a crest of foaming waters as. high as the house- 
tops was roaring down upon them through the Conemaugh, and 
that they must get out of the way of that. Some in their terror 
dived into the cellars of their houses, though this was certain death. 
Others got up on the roofs of their houses and clambered over the 
adjoining roofs to places of safety. But the majority made for 
the hills, which girt the town like giants. Of the people who went 
to the hills the water caught some in its whirl. The others clung 
to trees and roots and pieces of debris which had temporarily 
lodged near the banks, and managed to save themselves. These 
people either stayed out on the hills wet, and in many instances 
naked, all night, or they managed to find farm houses which shel- 
tered them. There was a fear of going back to the vicinity of the 
town. Even the people whose houses the water did not reach 
abandoned their homes and began to think of all of Johnstown as a 
city buried beneath the water. 

RETURN FROM THE HILLS. 

When these people came back to Johnstown on the day after the 
wreck of the town they had to put up in sheds, barns, and in houses 
which had been but partially ruined. They had to sleep without 
any covering in their wet clothes, and it took the liveliest kind of 
skirmishing to get anything to eat. Pretty soon a citizens' com- 
mittee was established, and nearly all the male survivors of the 



The Johnstown Flood. 383 

flood were immediately sworn in as deputy sheriffs. They adorned 
themselves with tin stars,, which they cut out of pieces of sheet 
metal found in the ruins. Sheets of tin with stars cut out of them 
turned up continually, to the surprise of the Pittsburg workmen 
who endeavored to get the town in shape. Some idea of the extent 
of the wreck of the town may be gathered from the fact that of 300 
prominent buildings only sixteen were still standing and these were 
more or less injured. 

For the first day or so people were dazed by what had hap- 
pened, and for that matter they are dazed still. They went about 
helpless, making vague inquiries for their friends and hardly feel- 
ing the desire to eat anything. Finally the need of creature com- 
forts overpowered them, and they woke up to the fact that they 
were faint and sick. This was to some extent changed by the ar- 
rival of tents and by the systematic military care for the suffering. 



THE BBXBGE WHERE HUNDREDS LOST THEIR LIVES. 

The " fatal bridge," as it is now called, and which wreaked 
such awful destruction, is described by a writer in this way : 

"The bridge, whose 'resistance of the torrent' was the matter 
of so much talk, was a noble four-track structure, just completed, 
fifty feet wide on top, thirty-two feet high above the water line, 
consisting of seven skew spans of fifty-eight feet each. It still 
remains wholly uninjured, except that it is badly spalled on the 
upper side by blows from the wreckage, but that it so remains is 
due solely to the accident of its position, and not to its strength, 
although it was and is still the embodiment of solidity. 

"Had the torrent struck it, it would have swept it away as if it 
had been built of cardboard, leaving no track behind; but for- 
tunately (or unfortunately) its axis was exactly parallel with the 
path of the flood, which hence struck the face of the mountain full, 
and compressed the whole of its spoils gathered in a fourteen-mile 
course into one inextricable mass, with the force of tens of thou- 
sands of tons moving at nearly sixty miles per hour. 

"Its spoils consisted of (1) every tree the flood had touched 



384 The Johnstown Flood. 

in its whole course, with trifling exceptions, including hundreds of 
large trees, all of which were stripped of their bark and small 
limbs almost at once; (2) all the houses in a thickly settled town 
three miles long and one-fourth to one-half mile wide; (3) half 
the human beings and all the horses, cows, cats, dogs, and rats that 
were in the houses; (4) many hundreds of miles of telegraph wire 
that was on strong poles in use, and many times more than this 
that was in stock in the mills; (5) perhaps fifty miles of track 
and track material, rails and all; (6) locomotives, pig iron, brick, 
stone, boilers, steam engines, heavy machinery, and other spoil of 
a large manufacturing town. 

"All this was accumulated in one inextricable mass, which al- 
most immediately caught fire from some stove which the waters 
had not touched. Hundreds if not thousands of human beings, 
dead and alive, were caught in it, many by the lower part of the 
body only. Eye-witnesses describe the groans and cries which 
came from that vast holocaust for nearly the whole night as some- 
thing almost unbearable to listen to, yet which could not be es- 
caped. Hundreds, undoubtedly, suffered a slow death by fire ; yet 
we cannot doubt that the vast majority of the men, women and 
children in that fearful jam, which covered fully thirty acres, and 
perhaps more, were already dead when the fire began. 

"Johnstown proper is in a large basin formed by the junction 
of the Conemaugh and the almost equally large Stony Creek, flow- 
ing into the Conemaugh from the south, just above the bridge. 
The bridge being hermetically sealed, it and the adjacent em- 
bankment formed a second dam about thirty feet high, Johnstown 
serving as a bed of a reservoir which we should judge to be nearly 
large enough to hold the entire contents of the reservoir above, ex- 
cept that it was already filled knee-deep or more by an unusually 
heavy but annual spring flood. 

"One offshoot of the main torrent was deflected southward by 
the Gautier Works, and went tearing through the heart of the more 
southerly portion of the town, and still another similar branch was 
split off from the main torrent further down ; but in the main, the 
direct force of the torrent did not strike this southerly portion of 
the town. 



The Johnstown Flood. 385 

"It struck first against the jam, and thus lost most of its fierce 
energy, flowing thence southward in a heavy stream, which tossed 
about houses in the most fantastic way, so that this part of the 
town looks much like a child's toy village poured out of a box hap- 
hazard; the houses are not torn to pieces generally. 

"About half the loss of life was in this district, for all Johns- 
town became speedily a lake twenty or more feet deep, and stayed 
so all night ; and it was here, and not in the direct path of the flood, 
that all the 'rescuing' of people from roofs and floating timbers 
occurred. 

"Nothing of the kind was possible in the flood itself. Like- 
wise, after the break in the embankment had occurred, and the flood 
began to recede from Johnstown, it was from this district chiefly 
that people were carried off down stream on floating wreckage. 
All that came within the direct path of the flood was fast within 
the jam. 

' ' The existence of this temporary Johnstown reservoir naturally 
broke the continuity of the flood discharge, and transformed it 
into something not greatly different from an ordinary but very 
heavy freshet. Cambria City, just below the bridge, was badly 
wrecked, with the loss of hundreds of lives ; but in the main, from 
Johnstown down, the flood ceased to be very destructive. It took 
out almost every bridge it came to for fifty miles, and washed 
away tracks and did other minor damage, but the Johnstown 'res- 
ervoir' saved hundreds of lives below it by equalizing the flow." 

THE DAY EXPRESS DISASTER. 

John Barr, the conductor in charge of the Pullman parlor car 
on the first section of the day express, which was caught in the 
flood at Conemaugh, told a thrilling story of his experience. 

His train, with two others, had been run onto a. siding on high 
ground at Conemaugh Station, opposite the big round-house. He 
saw the water coming, and describes it as having the appearance of 
a mountain moving toward him. 

He immediately ran to his car and shouted to his passengers 
to run for their lives. John Davis, connected with a large rolling 



386 The Johnstown Flood. 

mill near Lancaster, was traveling from Colorado with his invalid 
wife and two children, aged 4 and 6. Mr. Davis was engaged in 
getting his wife off the car, and Conductor Barr grabbed np the 
two children and, with one under each arm, started for the hills, 
with the water right at his heels. He ran a distance of about 200 
yards and barely managed to deposit his precious burden on safe 
ground before the flood swept past him. 

Mr. Barr said it would never be known how many persons lost 
their lives from the ill-fated train. The one passenger coach which 
was carried away had some people in it ; how many, nobody knows. 
At least twenty were drowned. A freight train was between the 
day express and the flood on an adjoining track, and this served to 
in a measure protect his train. 

Some idea of the terrible force of the flood may be gained from 
Mr. Barr's statement that the engines in the round-house, thirty- 
seven in number, swept past him standing half way out of the 
water, their forty tons of weight not being sufficient to take them 
beneath the surface. The baggage car was lifted clear out of the 
water and landed on the other side of the river. 

WONBEEFTJL ESCAPES. 

A Miss Wayne, who was traveling from Pittsburg to Altoona, 
had a wonderful escape. She was caught in the swirl and almost 
all of her clothing torn from her person, and she was providential- 
ly thrown by the angry waters clear of the rushing flood. 

Miss Wayne said that while she lay more dead than alive on the 
river bank she saw the Hungarians rifle the bodies of dead passen- 
gers and cut off their fingers for the purpose of obtaining the rings 
on the hands of the corpses. Miss Wayne was provided with a 
suit of men's clothing and rode into Altoona thus arrayed. 

Miss Maloney of Woodbury, N. J., a passenger on the parlor 
car, started to leave the car, and then, fearing to venture out into 
the flood, returned to the inside of the car. When the water sub-' 
sided the crew rushed to the car, expecting to find Miss Maloney 
dead, but the water had not gone high enough to drown her, and 
she was all right, though greatly frightened. 



The Johnstown Flood. 387 

She displayed a rare amount of forethought in the face of dan- 
ger, having tied securely around her waist a piece of her clothing, 
on which her name was written in indelible ink. She fully ex- 
pected that she would be drowned, and did this in order that her 
body, if found, might be identified. 

When the water was still high Conductor Barr made an at- 
tempt to get back to his car from the hill, but after wading up to 
his arm-pits in the water he was forced to return to safe ground. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD'S LAST TRAIN. 

The last train to which the Susquehanna River permitted the 
use of the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Harris- 
burg and Lancaster rolled into Broad Street Station, at Philadel- 
phia, at 9:35 p. m. on Saturday, June 1. It was a nondescript 
train. The last car was a vestibule Pullman, which had never 
stopped at so many way stations before in its aristocratic life, and 
which had been cut off the stalled Chicago limited at Harrisburg 
to be taken back to New York. The rest of "the train had started 
from Harrisburg at 3 :40 as the day express, and at Lancaster had 
been changed into the York and Columbia "tub." 

No train's name ever fitted it better. The tub had swam 
through seven miles of water on its way, water differing in depth 
from three inches to three feet. 

The seven miles of water covered the track between Harrisburg 
and Highspire. When the newspaper train, touched with the morn- 
ing dailies and to some extent with the men who make them, dashed 
drippingly into Harrisburg at half -past seven in the morning it had 
only encountered three-fourths of a mile of water. 

No reports of a great increase in the Susquehanna 's output had 
reached beleaguered Harrisburg during the day, and the express 
started out with two engines, 1095 and 1105, towing it, and a fair 
chance of reaching Philadelphia, on time. The original three- 
quarters of a mile of overflow— caused by the back-water of Paxton 
Creek— was passed without incident. 

The water was about up to the bottom steps of the car plat- 
forms, and the pilot of the leading engine threw to each side a fine 



388 The Johnstown Flood. 

billow of yellow water, sending a swell like that of a tramp steamer 
passing Gloucester, in among the floating outhouses and sub- 
merged slag heaps of the suburbs of Harrisburg and bringing 
cheers from thousands who watched the train's advance from their 
second-story windows and forgot the condition of their first-floor 
furniture in the excitement of watching the amphibious prowess 
of the day express. 

11 We've seen the worst of it," said the elderly, kindly con- 
ductor to a couple of excited women passengers as the last of the 
three-fourths of a mile of billows was thrown from the pilot of 
1095. "We've seen the worst of it, but the train will have to wait 
here a little while— the fires are almost out." 

So 1095 and 1102 stood puffing and panting for awhile on the 
high track while the afternoon sunlight dried their dripping flanks 
and the baffled Susquehanna rolled its burden of driftwood sul- 
lenly southward on their right. Then the day express rolled on 
again. The dry ground was just about long enough to give the 
train an impetus for another header into the Susquehanna's over- 
flow. 

It was into the Susquehanna itself that the header seemed to be 
taken this time. It was no longer a question of an overflow creek 
in a railroad cut. The billows from the prow of 1095 swept not 
in among overturned outhouses and submerged slag heaps, but 
out on the broad coffee-colored bosom of the river, to be broken 
into a thousand chop waves among the churning driftwood. The 
people in the second-story windows forgot to cheer. The people 
in the coaches forgot to joke on the men's part and to fret on the 
women's. It was curious and it was ticklish. 

The train was running slowly, very slowly. The wheels were 
out of sight, The water was swirling among the trucks and lap- 
ping at the platforms. The only sign of land locomotion about 
the day express was an audible one, a watery pounding and rum- 
bling of the wheels on the hidden tracks. 

The day express looked like a long broad river serpent wrig- 
gling on its belly down along the green river bank. Gradually 
there was a simultaneous though not concerted movement among 
the passengers. They began crowding toward the platforms and 



The Johnstown Flood. 389 

looking toward the land side. Suddenly a brakeman broke the 
queer silence, in a voice which had just the least crescendo of ex- 
citement in it: 

"If you people don't keep quiet we can't do anything!" he 
shouted. 

The demand was a little absurd, the direction of a land cox- 
swain to "trim ship." Still, it had its uses. It relieved the ten- 
sion which everybody felt and nobody acknowledged. The pas- 
sengers retired from the platforms. 

Joking began again among the men and fretting among the 
women. There hadn't been much fun in looking toward the land 
side, anyway. What had appeared to be a recession of the waters 
when looked at from above was merely a swelling of the stream 
from the overflow of the canal which parallels the road for several 
miles at that point. 

All at once the train, which had been moving more slowly for 
each of a good ten minutes, stopped short. It seemed as if 1095 's 
sharp nose had scented danger like a sensitive horse, and, panting, 
refused to go further. 

Then the engine crews were seen by the passengers to leap from 
their cabs thigh deep in the water and begin hauling at some sub- 
aquean obstacle. 

"Driftwood," said the same brakeman who had commanded 
quiet. 

STOPPED BY DRIFTWOOD. 

So it was. A train stopped by driftwood ! It was floating all 
about, and threatened to impede the progress of the day express 
altogether. Fence rails from far up-country farms, planks from 
dismantled signal stations, platforms along the line, railroad ties 
innumerable, branches and even small trunks of trees floated 
against the wheels with disjected stacks of green wheat and other 
ruined crops upon the ever-rising flood of the river. 

There had been high, dry land in sight just beyond Higkspire 
Station, but as sure as guns were iron and floods were floods the 
land was disappearing. The river's rise was steady. The inhab- 
itants of the drowned lands who appeared to take the drowning 



390 The Johnstown Flood. 

easily, though no such a drowning had been known to them in a 
quarter of a century, had been in large numbers keeping company 
of the train for the last two miles in skiffs and punts. They rowed 
close to the cars and towed away the larger drift. They were not 
entirely on life-saving service. There was a bit of the wreckage in 
their composition. They towed the trunk and ties into their front 
yards and anchored them to their window blinds. 

Finally the straining backs of the engine crews gave one mighty 
tug at the hidden obstacle. A huge platform plank floated loose 
from 1095, and 1095 shrieked triumph. The wheels began to churn 
the brown water with yellowish white, and 1095 and 1102 ran up 
on the dry ground like the eagle in the sun, to whom the Irish poet 
compared the Irish troops at Fontenoy. 

As they did so the clatter of a light advancing train was heard 
from the east, and a sound of cheering. A single engine drawing 
two crowded cars shot around the bend, and ran with a light heart 
into the torrent out of which the day express had just emerged. 

"They'll never get through," was the unanimous comment of 
the day express passengers, and their verdict seemed to be con- 
firmed officially by the brakeman who had been excited. 

lie stood in the door of the car and shouted: "This train will 
stop at all stations between Lancaster and Bryn Mawr. There will 
be no more trains between Harrisburg and Lancaster to-night," 

Afterward he added: "As this is the last train it will have to 
take the place of the 'tub.' " 

THE FIRST RUSH OE THE DEATH WAVE. 

A man who was above the danger line on the right bluff above 
the town, and who saw the first rush of the death wave, says that 
it was preceded by a peculiar phenomenon, which he thinks was the 
explosion of the gas mains. He says that a few minutes before the 
wall of the water had reached the city there was a tremendous ex- 
plosion somewhere in the upper part of the place. He said that he 
saw the fragments of the buildings rise in the air, and the next mo- 
ment saw two lines of flame down through the city in different 
directions, and frame buildings were apparently being torn to 



The Johnstown Flood. 391 

pieces and wrecked. The next minute the water came, and he re- 
members nothing further. There really was an explosion of gas 
that wrecked a church in the upper part of the city just at the 
time of the flood. If there was also an explosion of the gas main, 
the cause of the fire at the bridge is explained. Light frame build- 
ings set on fire by the explosion were picked up bodily and tossed 
on top of the water into the wreck at the bridge without the lire 
being extinguished. 

Mrs. Fredericks, an aged woman, was rescued alive from the 
attic in her house. The house had floated from what was formerly 
Vine street to the foot of the mountains. Mrs. Fredericks says 
her experience was terrible. She said she saw hundreds of men, 
women and children floating down the torrent to meet their death, 
some praying, while others had actually become raving maniacs. 

THE SEAL EOBXtORS OF THE DISASTER. 

"No one will ever know the real horrors of this accident unless 
he saw the burning people and debris beside the stone bridge," 
remarked the Rev. Father Trautwein. ' ' The horrible nature of the 
affair cannot be realized by any person who did not witness the 
scene. As soon as possible after the first great crash occurred I 
hastened to the bridge. 

"A thousand persons were struggling in the ruins and implor- 
ing for God's sake to release them. Frantic husbands and fathers 
stood at the edge of the furnace that was slowly heating to a cherry 
heat and incinerating human victims. Every one was anxious to 
save his own relatives, and raved, cursed, and blasphemed until 
the air appeared to tremble. No system, no organized effort to 
release the pent-up persons was made by those related to them. 

"Shrieking, they would command: 'Go to that place; go get 
her out; for God's sake get her out,' referring to some beloved one 
they wanted saved. 

"Under the circumstances it was necessary to secure organiza- 
tion, and thinking I was trying to thwart their efforts when I or- 
dered another point to be attacked by the rescuers, they advanced 
upon me, threatened to shoot me, or dash me into the raging river. 



392 The Johnstown Flood. 

' ' One man who was trying to steer a float upon which his wife 
sat on a mattress lost his hold, and in a moment the craft swept 
into a sea of flame and never again appeared. The agony of that 
man was simply heartrending. He raised his arms to heaven and 
screamed in his mental anguish, and only ceased that to tear his 
hair and moan like one distracted. Every effort was made to save 
every person accessible, and we have the satisfaction of knowing 
that fully 200 were saved from cremation. One young woman was 
found under the dead body of a relative. 

"A force of men attempted to extricate her, and succeeded in 
releasing every limb but one leg. For three hours they labored, 
and every moment the flames crept nearer and nearer. I was on 
the point several times of ordering the men to chop her leg off. 
It would have been much better to save her life, even at that loss, 
than have her burn to death. Fortunately it was not necessary; 
but the young lady's escape from mutilation or death she will 
never realize." 

The flood and fire claimed among its victims not only the living 
but the dead. A handsome coffin was found half burned in some 
charred wreckage down near the point. Inside was found the body 
of a man shrouded for burial, but so scorched about the head and 
face as to be unrecognizable. The supposition is that the house in 
which the dead man had lain had been crushed and the. debris 
partly consumed by fire. The body was carried to the Fourth 
Ward school house, and marked "unless claimed will be buried in 
the unknown field." 

THE CLOCK STOPPED AT 5:20. 

One of the queerest sights in the center of the town was a three- 
story brick residence standing with one wall, the others having 
disappeared completely, leaving the floors supported by the par- 
titions. In one of the upper rooms could be seen a mantel with a 
lambrequin on it and a clock stopped at twenty minutes after five. 
In front of the clock was a lady's fan, though from the marks on 
the wall paper the water had been over all these things. 

In the upper part of the town, where the back-water from the 



The Johnstown Flood. 393 

flood went into the valley with diminished force, there were many 
strange scenes. 

There the houses were toppled over one after another in a row, 
and left where they lay. One of them was turned completely over 
and stood with its roof on the foundations of another house and its 
base in the air. The owner came back, and getting into his house 
through the windows, walked about on his ceiling. 

Out of this house a woman and her two children escaped safely 
and were but little hurt, although they were stood on their heads 
in the whirl. 

Every house had its own story. From one a. woman sent up in 
her garret escaped by chopping a hole in the roof. From another 
a Hungarian named Grevins leaped to the shore as it went whirling 
past, and fell twenty-five feet upon a pile of metal and escaped 
with a broken leg. 

Another is said to have come all the way from very near the 
start of the flood and to have circled around with the back water 
and finally landed on the flats at the city site, where it is still 
pointed out. 

THE SITUATION" NINE DAYS AETEK. 

A correspondent described the situation at Johnstown nine days 
after the disaster in this way: 

' ' So vast is the field of destruction that to get an adequate idea 
from any point level with the town is simply impossible. It must 
be viewed from a height. From the top of Kernsville Mountain, 
just at the east of the town, the whole strange panorama can be 
seen. 

"Looking down from the height many things about the flood 
that appear inexplicable from below are perfectly plain. How so 
many houses happened to be so queerly twisted, for instance, as 
if the water had a twirling instead of a straight motion, was made 
perfectly clear. 

' ' The town was built in an almost equilateral triangle, with one 
angle pointed squarely up the Conemaugh Valley to the east, from 
which the flood came. At the northerly angle was the junction of 
the Conemaugh and Stony creeks. The southern angle pointed up 



394 The Johnstown Flood. 

the Stony Creek Valley. Now about one-half of the triangle, for- 
merly densely covered with buildings, is swept as clear as a platter, 
except for three or four big brick buildings that stand near the 
angle which points up the Conemaugh. 

' ' The course of the flood, from the exact point where it issued 
from the Conemaugh Valley to where it disappeared below in a turn 
in the river and above by spreading itself over the flat district of 
five or six miles, is clearly defined. The whole body of water issued 
straight from the valley in a solid wave and tore across the village 
of Woodvale and so on to the business part of Johnstown at the 
lower part of the triangle. Here a cluster of solid brick blocks, 
aided by the conformation of the land, evidently divided the stream. 

' ' The greater part turned to the north, swept up the brick block 
and then mixed with the ruins of the villages above down to the 
stone arch bridge. The other stream shot across the triangle, was 
turned southward by the bluffs and went up the valley of Stony 
Creek. The stone arch bridge in the meantime acted as a dam and 
turned part of the current back toward the south, where it finished 
the work of the triangle, turning again to the northward and back 
to the stone arch bridge. 

' ' The stream that went up Stony Creek was turned back by the 
rising ground and then was reinforced by the back water from the 
bridge again and started south, where it reached a mile and a half 
and spent its force on a little settlement called Grubbtown. 

' ' The frequent turning of this stream, forced against the build- 
ings and then the bluffs, gave it a regular whirling motion from 
right to left, and made a tremendous eddy, whose centrifugal force 
twisted everything it touched. This accounts for the comparatively 
narrow path of the flood through the southern part of the town, 
where its course through the thickly clustered frame dwelling houses 
is as plain as a highway. 

' i The force of the stream diminished gradually as it went south, 
for at the place where the currents separated every building is 
ground to pieces and carried away, and at the end the houses 
were only turned a little on their foundations. In the middle of 
the course they are turned over on their sides or upside down. Fur- 




Copyright, 1902. by L. G. Stahl. 
WOMEN WASHING CLOTHES IN THE WHITE RIVER, ST. PIERRE. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

SULPHUR LAKE IN AN EXTINCT CRATER. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. Stahl. 

WOMEN UNLOADING COAL FROM STEAMER. 




Copyright, 1902, by L. G. StaM. 

ROAD SCENE, ISLAND OF BARBADOS. 



The Johnstown Flood. 397 

ther down they are not single, but great heaps of ground lumber that 
look like nothing so much as enormous pith balls. 

' ' To the north the work of the waters is of a different sort. It 
picked up everything except the big buildings that divided the cur- 
rent and piled the fragments down upon the stone bridge or swept 
them over and so on down the river for miles. 

"This left the great yellow, sandy and barren plain, so often 
spoken of in the dispatches where stood the best buildings in Johns- 
town—the opera house, the big hotel, many wholesale warehouses, 
shops and the finest residences. 

"In this plain there are now only the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road train, a school house, the Morrell Company's store and an 
adjoining warehouse and the few buildings of the triangle. One 
brick residence, badly shattered, is also standing. 

"These structures do not relieve the shocking picture of ruin 
spread out below the mountains, but by contrast making it more 
striking. That part of the town to the south where the flood tore 
the narrow path there used to be a separate village which was called 
Kernsville. It is now known as the South Side. Some of the 
queerest sights of the wreck are there, though few persons have 
gone to see them. 

' ' Many of the houses that are left there scattered helter skelter, 
thrown on their sides and standing on their roofs, were never in 
that neighborhood nor anywhere near it before. They came down 
on the breast of the wave from as far up as Franklin, were carried 
safely by the factories and the bridges, by the big buildings at the 
dividing line, up and down on the flood and finally settled in their 
new resting places little injured. 

' i A row of them, packed closely together and every one tipped 
over at about the same angle, is only one of the queer freaks the 
water played. 

"I got into one of these houses in my walk through the town 
to-day. The lower story had been filled with water and everything 
in it had been torn out. The carpet had been split into strips on 
the floor by the sheer force of the rushing tide. Heaps of mud 
stood in the corners. There was no vestige of furniture. The walls 
dripped with moisture. 



398 The Johnstown Flood. 

' ' The ceiling was gone, the windows were out and the cold rain 
blew in and the only thing that was left intact was one of those 
worked worsted mottoes that you always expect to find in the homes 
of working people. It still hung to the wall, and though much awry 
the glass and frame were unbroken. The motto looked grimly and 
sadly sarcastic. It was: — 

a "phere is no place like home.' 

"A melancholy wreck of a home that motto looked down upon. 

"I saw a wagon in the middle of a side street sticking tongue 
and all straight up into the air, resting on its tail board, with the 
hind wheels almost completely buried in the mud. I saw a house 
standing exactly in the middle of Napoleon street, the side stove 
in by crashing against some other house and in the hole the coffin 
of its owner was placed. 

"Some scholar's library had been strewn over the street in the 
last stage of the flood, for there was a trail of good books left half 
sticking in the mud and reaching for over a block. One house had 
been lifted over two others in some mysterious way and then had 
settled down between them and there it stuck, high up in the air, so 
its former occupants might have got into it again with ladders. 

"Down at the lower end of the course of the stream, where its 
force was greater, there was a house lying on one corner and held 
there by being fastened in the deep mud. Through its side the 
trunk of a tree had been driven like a lance, and there it stayed 
sticking out straight in the air. 

' ' In the muck was the case and keyboard of a square piano, and 
far down the river, near the debris about the stone bridge, were its 
legs. An upright piano, with all its inside apparatus cleanly taken 
out, stood straight up a little way off. What was once a set of costly 
furniture was strewn all about it, and the house that had contained 
it was nowhere. 

SOME WONDERFUL STORIES. 

' ' The remarkable stories that have been told about people float- 
ing a mile up the river and then back two or three times are easily 



The Johnstown Flood. 399 

credible after seeing the evidences of the strange course the flood 
took in this part of the town. People who stood near the ruins of 
Poplar Bridge saw four women on a roof float up on the stream, 
turn a short distance above and come back and go past again and 
once more return. Then they were seen to go far down on the current 
to the lower part of the town and were rescued as they passed the 
second-story window of a school house. A man who was imprisoned 
in the attic of his house put his wife and two children on a roof that 
was eddying past and stayed behind to die alone. They floated up 
the stream and then came back and got upon the roof of the very 
house they had left, and the whole family were saved. 

' ' At Grubbtown there is a house which came all the way from 
Woodvale. On it was a man who lived near Grubbtown, but was 
working at Woodvale when the flood came. He was carried right 
past his own home, and coolly told the people at the bridge to bid 
his wife good-bye for him. The house passed the bridge three times, 
the man carrying on a conversation with the people on the shore 
and giving directions for his burial if his body should be found. 

"The third time the house went up it grounded at Grubbtown, 
and in an hour or two the man was safe at home. Three girls who 
went by on a roof crawled into the branches of a tree, and had to 
stay there all night before they could make anyone understand 
where they were. At one time scores of floating houses were wedged 
in together near the ruins of Poplar street bridge. Four brave men 
went out from the shore, and stepping from house-roof to house- 
roof brought in twelve woman and children. 

' ' Some women crawled from roofs into the attics of houses. In 
their struggles with the flood most of their clothes had been torn 
from them, and rather than appear on the streets they stayed where 
they were until hunger forced them to shout out of the window for 
help. At this stage of the flood more persons were lost by being 
crushed to death than by drowning. As they floated by on roofs or 
doors the toppling houses fell over upon them and killed them. 

CLEARING THE DEBRIS. 

' ' The workers began on the wreck on Main street just opposite 
the First National Bank, one of the busiest parts of the city. A 



400 The sJohnstown Flood. 

large number of people were lost here, the houses being crushed on 
one side of the street and being almost untouched on the other, a 
most remarkable thing considering the terrific force of the flood. 
Twenty-one bodies were taken out in the early morning and taken 
to the morgue. They were not much injured, considering the weight 
of lumber above them. 

"In many instances they were wedged in crevices. They were 
all in a good state of preservation, and when they were embalmed 
they looked almost lifelike. In this central part of the city examina- 
tion is sure to result in the unearthing of bodies in every corner. 
Cottages which are still standing are banked up with lumber and 
driftwood, and it is like mining to make any kind of a clear space. 

"Thirteen bodies were taken from the burning debris at the 
Stone Bridge at one time yesterday afternoon. None of the bodies 
were recognizable, and they were put in coffins and buried imme- 
diately. They were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to 
keep them until they could be identified. During a blast at the 
bridge yesterday afternoon two bodies were almost blown to pieces. 
The blasting has had the effect of opening the channel under the 
central portion of the bridge. 

' ' The order that was issued that all unidentified dead be buried 
is being rapidly carried out. The Rev. Mr. Beall, who has charge 
of the morgue at the Fourth Ward school house, which is the chief 
place, says that a large force of men has been put at work digging 
graves, and at the close of the afternoon the remains will be laid 
away as rapidly as it can be done. 

VOLUNTEERS AT WORK. 

"William Flynn has taken charge of the army of eleven hun- 
dred laborers who are doing a wonderful amount of work. In an 
interview he told of the work that has to be done, and the con- 
tractors' estimates show more than anything the chaotic condition 
of this city. 'It will take ten thousand men thirty days to clear the 
ground so that the streets are passable and the work of rebuilding 
can be commenced,' said he, 'and I am at a loss to know how the 
work is to be done. This enthusiasm will soon die out and the volun- 
teers will want to return home. . 



The Johnstown Flood. 401 

" ' It would take all summer for my men alone to do what work 
is necessary. Steps must be taken at once to furnish gangs of work- 
men, and I shall send a communication to the Pittsburg Chamber 
of Commerce asking the different manufacturers of the Ohio Valley 
to take turns for a month or so in furnishing reliefs of workmen. 

"•'I shall ask that each establishment stop work for a week at 
a time and send all hands in charge of a foreman and timekeeper. 
We will board and care for them here. These gangs should come for 
a week at a time, as no organization can be effected if workmen ar- 
rive and leave when they please.' 

' ' A meeting was held here in the afternoon which resulted in the 
appointment of James B. Scott, of Pittsburg, generalissimo. 

"Mr. Scott, in an interview, said that he proposed to clear the 
town of all wreckage and debris of all descriptions and turn the 
town site over to the citizens when he has completed his work clean 
and free from obstructions of all kinds. 

HOW BODIES WERE IDENTIFIED. 

"I was here when -the gang came across one of the upper stories 
of a house. It was merely a pile of boards apparently, but small 
pieces of a bureau and a bed spring from which the clothes had been 
burned showed the nature of the find. A faint odor of burned flesh 
prevailed exactly at this spot. 

' ' ' Dig here, ' said the physician to the men. ' There is one body 
at least quite close to the surface. ' The men started in with a will. 
A large pile of underclothes and household linen was brought up 
first. It was of fine quality and evidently such as would be stored in 
the bedroom of a house occupied by people quite well to do. 

' ' Presently one of the men exposed a charred lump of flesh and 
lifted it up on the end of a pitchfork. It was all that remained of 
some poor creature who had met an awful death between water and 
fire. 

' ' The trunk was put on a cloth, the ends were looped up, making 
a bag of it, and the thing was taken to the river bank. It weighed 
probably thirty pounds. A stake was driven in the ground to which 
a tag was attached giving a description of the remains. This is done 
in many cases to the burned bodies, and they lay covered with cloths 
upon the bank until men came with coffins to remove them. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXV. 

DESTRUCTION OP GALVESTON, TEXAS. 

Tidal Wave, Hurricane, Loss of Life, Destruction of Property — An Awful 
Saturday Night — Population — Storm Seasons — How Storms Are Diverted 
— Storm of 1875 — A Solemn, Somber Sunday — Plundering the Dead — 
"Martial Law Enforced — Decomposition of Bodies — Belief. 

A tidal wave joined with a hurricane caused a disaster that has 
no parallel in the history of the world at Galveston, Texas, on Sat- 
urday, September 8, 1900. A frightful West Indian hurricane de- 
scended upon the beautiful and progressive city on that date, caus- 
ing the loss of nearly ten thousand lives and the destruction of 
millions of dollars' worth of property. The storm then ravaged 
Central and Western Texas, killing several hundred people and 
inflicting damage that years were required to repair. 

When the gale approached the island upon which Galveston is 
situated, it lashed the waves of the Gulf of Mexico into a tremen- 
dous fury, causing them to rise to all but mountain height, and then 
it was that, combining their forces, the wind and water pounced 
upon their prey. 

THE WORK OF FOUR HOURS. 

In the short space of four hours the entire site of the city was 
covered by angry waters, while the gale blew at the rate of one hun- 
dred miles an hour; business houses, public buildings, churches, 
residences, charitable institutions, and all other structures gave way 
before the pressure of the wind and the fierce onslaught of the rag- 
ing flood, and those which did not crumble altogether were so in- 
jured, in the majority of cases, that they were torn down. 

Such a night of horror as the unfortunate inhabitants were com- 
pelled to pass has fallen to the lot of few since the records of his- 
tory were first opened. In the early evening, when the water first 
began to invade Galveston Island, ihe people residing along the 

403 



Desteuction of Galveston. 403 

beach and near it fled in fear from their homes and sought the high- 
est points in the city as places of refuge, taking nothing but the 
smaller articles in their houses with them. On and on crawled the 
flood, until darkness had set in, and then, as though possessed of a 
fiendish vindictiveness, hastened its speed and poured over the sur- 
face of the town, completely submerging it— covering the most ele- 
vated ground to a depth of five feet and the lower portions ten and 
twelve feet. 

THE FURY OF THE HURRICANE. 

The hurricane was equally malignant, if not more fiendish and 
cruel, and lore great buildings and beautiful homes to pieces with 
evident delight, scattering the debris far and wide ; telegraph and 
telephone lines were thrown down, railway tracks and bridges— 
the latter connecting the island and city with the mainland— torn 
up, and the mighty, tangled mass of wires, bricks, sections of roofs, 
sidewalks, fences and other things hurled into the main thorough- 
fares and cross streets, rendering it impossible for pedestrians to 
make their way along for many days after the waters and gale had 
subsided. 

Forty thousand people— men, women and children — cowered in 
terror for eight long hours, the intense blackness of the night, the 
swishing and lapping of the waves, the demoniac howling and 
shrieking of the wind and the indescribable and awful crashing, 
tearing and rending as the houses, hundreds at a time, were wrecked 
and shattered, ever sounding in their ears. Often, too, the friendly 
shelter where families had taken refuge would be swept away, 
plunging scores and scores of helpless ones into the mad current 
which flowed through every street of the town, and fathers and 
mothers were compelled to undergo the agony of seeing their chil- 
dren drown, with no possibility of rescue ; husbands lost their wives 
and wives their husbands, and the elements were only merciful 
when they destroyed an entire family at once. 

A FEARFUL SATURDAY NIGHT. 

All during that fearful night of Saturday until the gray and 
gloomy dawn of Sunday broke upon the sorrow-stricken city, the 



404 Destruction of Galveston. 

entire population of Galveston stood face to face with grim death 
in its most horrible shapes ; they could not hope for anything more 
than the vengeance of the hurricane, and as they realized that with 
every passing moment souls were being hurried into eternity, is it 
at all wonderful that, after the strain was over and all danger gone, 
reason should finally be unseated and men and women break into 
the unmeaning gayety of the maniac 1 ? 

Not one inhabitant of Galveston old enough to realize the sit- 
uation had any idea other than that death was to be the fate of all 
before another da} 7 appeared, and when this long and weary sus- 
pense, to which was added the chill of the night and the growing 
pangs of hunger, was at last broken by the first gleams of the light 
of the Sabbath morn, the latter was not entirely welcome, for the 
face of the sun was hidden by morose and ugly clouds, from which 
dripped, at dreary intervals, cold and gusty showers. 

Thousands were swallowed up during the darkness and their 
bodies either mangled and mutilated by the wreckage which had 
been tossed everywhere, left to decompose in the slimy ooze depos- 
ited by the flood or forced to follow the waves in their sullen re- 
tirement to the waters of the gulf. The destruction was terrific; 
miles and miles of railroad track had disappeared, and the bridges 
carried away; there was absolutely no means of communication 
with the outer world except by boat. The strange spectacle was 
then presented of the richest city of its size in the richest country 
in the world tying prostrate, helpless and hopeless, a prey to ghouls, 
vultures, harpies, thieves, thugs and outlaws of every sort ; its peo- 
ple starving, and the putrid bodies of its dead breeding pestilence. 

BUILT UPON THE SAND. 

Galveston was built upon the sand. According to Professor 
Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau at 
Washington, not only Galveston was insecurely built upon the flat 
sands of the island, but other cities on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, 
lying at tide, are subject to the same dangers. The West Indian 
hurricane may strike almost anywhere from the southern line of 
North Carolina, on down the coast, around the peninsula of Florida, 



Destruction of Galveston. 405 

and anywhere within the great arc described by the western shores 
of the Gulf of Mexico. These storms, perhaps 600 miles wide, 
have a vortex of twenty to thirty miles in diameter. It is in this 
vortex that the land was laid waste. 

The City of Galveston is situated on the extreme east end of 
the Island of Galveston. It is six square miles in area, its present 
limits being the limits of the original corporation and the bounda- 
ries of the land purchased from the Republic of Texas by Colonel 
Menard in 1838 for the sum of $50,000. Colonel Menard associated 
with himself several others, who formed a town site company with 
a capital of $1,000,000. The City of Galveston was platted on April 
20, 1838, and seven days later the lots were put on the market. The 
streets of Galveston are numbered from one to fifty-seven across 
the island from north to south, and the avenues are known by the 
letters of the alphabet, extending east and west lengthwise of the 
island. 

FOUNDING THE CITY. 

The founders of the city donated to the public every tenth block 
through the center of the city from east to west for public parks. 
They also gave three sites for public markets and set aside one en- 
tire block for a college, three blocks for a girls ' seminary, and gave 
to every Christian denomination a valuable site for a church. 

Galveston Island, with a stretch of thirty-five miles, rises only 
five feet above the level of high tide. To the south is an unbroken 
sweep of sea for 800 miles. Twelve hundred miles away is the nest- 
ing place of storms— storms that rise out of the dead calm of the 
doldrums and sweep northward, sometimes with a fury that noth- 
ing can withstand. M^ost of these storms describe a parabola, with 
the westward arch touching the Atlantic coast, after which the 
track is northeastward, finally disappearing with the storm itself in 
the North Atlantic. 

WEST INDIAN HTJEEICANES. 

But every little while one of these West Indian hurricanes starts 
northwestward from its island nest, moving steadily on its course 
and entering the gulf itself. 

September and October are the months of these storms, and of 



406 Destruction of Galveston. 

the two months September is worse. In the ten years between 1878 
and 1887, inclusive, fifty-seven hurricanes arose in the warm, moist 
conditions of the West Indian doldrums. Most of these passed out 
to sea and to the St. Lawrence River country, where they disap- 
peared. But the hurricane of October 11, 1887, came ashore at 
New Orleans on October 17, and wrought havoc as it passed up the 
Eastern States to New Brunswick. The storm of October 8, 1886, 
reached Louisiana on the 12th, curving again toward Galveston on 
the Texas coast. It was in this storm that Galveston was flooded 
with loss of life and property while Indianola was destroyed be- 
yond recovery. 

HOW STORMS ARE DIVERTED. 

With these non-recurring storms two conditions favor their pas- 
sage into the gulf. A high barometric area lies over the Atlantic 
coast States, while a trough of low pressure leads into the gulf and 
northward into the region of the Dakotas. The hurricane takes the 
path of least resistance always, and it must pass far northward be- 
fore it can work its natural way around the tardy high area that 
hangs over the central coast States. It was this condition exactly 
which diverted the recent storm to Galveston and the Texas coast. 

ORIGIN OF A HURRICANE. 

The origin of a hurricane is not fully settled. Its accompany- 
ing phenomena, however, are significant to even the casual ob- 
server. A long swell on the ocean usually precedes it. This swell 
may be forced to great distances in advance of the storm and be 
observed two or three days before the storm strikes. A faint rise 
in the barometer may be noticed before the sharp fall follows. 
AVisips of thin, cirrus cloud float for 200 miles around the storm 
center.' The air is calm and sultry until a gentle breeze springs 
from the southeast. This breeze becomes a wind, a gale, and, 
finally, a tempest, with matted clouds overhead, precipitating rain 
and a churning sea below, throwing clouds of spume into the air. 

Here are all the terrible phenomena of the West Indian hurri- 
cane—the tremendous wind, the thrashing sea, the lightning, the 



Desteuction of Galveston. 407 

bellowing thunder, and the drowning rain that seems to be dashed 
from mighty tanks with the force of Titans. 

But almost in an instant all these may cease. The wind dies, 
the lightning goes out, the rain ceases, and the thunder bellows only 
in the distance. The core of the storm is overhead. Only the 
waves of the sea are churning. There may be twenty miles of this 
central core, a diameter of only one-thirtieth that of the storm. It 
passes quickly, and with as little warning as preceded its stop- 
page the storm closes in again, but with the wind from the opposite 
direction, and the whole phenomena suggesting a reversal of all 
that has gone before. 

No storm possible in the elements presents the terrors that ac- 
company the hurricane. The twisting tornado is confined to a 
narrow track, and it has no long-drawn-out horrors. Its climax is 
reached in a moment. The hurricane, however, grows and grows, 
and when it has reached to 100 or 120 miles an hour nothing can 
withstand it. 

THE STORM OF 1875. 

It was this terrible besom of the Southern seas that came so 
near to taking Galveston off the map. The great storm of 1875 
frightened the city. The fate of Indianola in 1886 and the loss of 
ten lives and $200,000 worth of property on Galveston Island had 
kept Galveston uneasy ever since. For fourteen years its old cit- 
izens had been admitting that twice in their memory the sea had 
come in on the island, causing death and destruction, but as sturdi- 
ly as their conservatism prompted they had insisted that it never 
could do so again. They gave no consistent reason for their belief. 
The island was no higher ; the force of the sea was as boundless as 
before ; the doldrums of the West Indies still hung over the archi- 
pelago in storm-brooding calm. But their belief spread and the 
island city grew and developed as the old settler never had hoped 
to see it grow when he squatted there in the sand more than sixty 
years ago. 

HOW GALVESTON DEVELOPED. 

This settler stock of Galveston Island was of queer character- 
istics. Colonel Menard, who founded it, bought the island and es- 



408 Destruction of Galveston. 

tablished a town-site company to attract immigration. The main- 
land, as flat and desolate almost as the island, was three miles away. 
But deep water was there and to the north was an agricultural coun- 
try that one day would have cotton to export. So the settlers 
waited. They held to their sand lots and traded with the "mos- 
quito fleet" which sailed up and down the coast from Corpus 
Christi to New Orleans. This mosquito fleet was the only means 
for bringing outside traders to the town. As it grew it developed 
that the city 's export trade was all it had. It did a wholesale busi- 
ness that was to its retail business in the proportion of 100 to 1 ! 

In this way Galveston developed in-growing propensities. It 
scoffed at the mainland for years after the gulf shore began to be 
peopled. It was satisfied with its railroad ' ' bridges, ' ' which were 
mere trestlework mounted on piling driven into the shallow water 
of the bay. If the mainland wished to reach the city let it row out 
or sail out; the city would not go to the expense of a wagon bridge. 

As a result Galveston was the most somnolent city in Texas, 
save on the wharves where tramp and coastwise ships and steamers 
loaded. When the market house closed by law at 10 o'clock in 
the morning, and when Galveston's own local population had laid 
in its supplies for a midday dinner and for supper and breakfast, 
Strand street took a nap. 

In the '80 's, however, a new element had been attracted, which 
was dissatisfied with the mossback order of things. It was not sat- 
isfied to make change with a stranger and give or take bits of yellow 
pasteboard, representing street-car rides, in lieu of nickels. 

But these young immigrants were frowned upon by Galveston 
conservatism. They were a disturbing element. They kept the 
staid, mossback citizen awake in the afternoons and he did not like 
U. They were clamoring for sewers and artesian water in mains, 
whereas the conservative was content to build his rain-water cis- 
tern above ground out of doors and strain the baby mosquitoes out 
of the water through a cloth. 

THE OLD AND THE NEW GALVESTON. 

When a new waterworks and standpipe had been completed in 
1889, and when some new mills had been established under diffi- 



Destruction of Galveston. 409 

culties, affairs had come to a pass when the new Galvestonian and 
the old found a great gap between. The visiting stranger was the 
confidant of both sides. 

"This town isn't what it used to be," sighed the conservative. 

"As a matter of fact," the young business man would say, "Gal- 
veston needs to bury about 150 of its 'old citizens' before it can 
get awake." 

This was the situation when the government began to expend 
money upon the harbor. 

This was the situation, slightly altered by time, when the wagon 
bridge was built to the main land, when the government, appro- 
priated $6,200,000 for the deepening of the harbor, and when ex- 
port trade from Galveston approached the mark of $100,000,000 
annually. 

A SOLEMN, SOMBRE SUNDAY. 

The surviving people of Galveston did not awaken from sleep on 
Sunday morning, for they had not slept the night before. For 
many weary hours they had stood face to face with death, and knew 
that thousands had yielded up their lives and that millions of dol- 
lars ' worth of property had been destroyed. 

There was not a building in Galveston which was not either en- 
tirely destroyed or damaged, and the people of the city lived in the 
valley of the shadow of death, helpless and hopeless, deprived of 
all hope and ambition— merely waiting for the appearance of the 
official death roll. 

Confusion and chaos reigned everywhere; death and desolation 
were on all sides; wreck and ruin were the only things visible 
wherever the eye might rest ; and with business entirely suspended 
and no other occupation than the search for and burial of the dead, 
it was strange that the thoroughfares and residence streets were 
not filled with insane victims of the hurricane's frightful visit. 

For days the people of Galveston knew there was danger ahead ; 
they were warned repeatedly, but they laughed at all fears, busi- 
ness went on as usual, and when the blow came it found the city 
unprepared and without safeguards. 

Owing to the stupefaction following the awful catastrophe, the 



410 Destruction of Galveston. 

people were in no condition, either physical or mental, to provide 
for themselves, and therefore depended upon the outside world for 
food and clothing. 

The inhabitants of Galveston needed immediate relief, but how 
they were to get it was a mystery, for Galveston was not yet in 
touch with the outside world by rail or sea. The city was sorely 
stricken, and appealed to the country at large to send food, clothing 
and water. The waterworks were in ruins and the cisterns all 
blown away, so that the lack of water was one of the most serious 
of the troubles. 

Never did a storm work more cruelly. All the electric light and 
telegraph poles were prostrated and the streets were littered with 
timbers, slate, glass and every conceivable character of debris. 
There was hardly a habitable house in the entire city, and nearly 
every business house was either wrecked entirely or badly dam- 
aged. 

LIVING AS BEST THEY COULD. 

On Monday there were deaths from hunger and exposure, and 
the list swelled rapidly. People were living as best they could— 
in the ruins of their homes, in hotels, in schoolhouses, in railway 
stations, in churches, in the streets by the side of their beloved dead. 

So great was the desolation one could not imagine a more sor- 
rowful place. Street cars were not running ; no trains could reach 
the town ; only sad-eyed men and women walked about the streets ; 
the dead and wounded monopolized the attention of those capable 
of doing anything whatever, and the city was at the mercy of thieves 
and ruffians. 

All the fine churches were in ruins. 

From Tremont to P street, thence to the beach, not a vestige of 
a residence was to be seen. 

In the business section of the city the water was from three to 
ten feet deep in stores, and stocks of all kinds, including foodstuffs, 
were total losses. It was a common spectacle— that of inhabitants 
of the fated city wandering around in a forsaken and forlorn way, 
indifferent to everything around them and paying no attention to 
inquiries of friends and relatives. 



Destruction of Galveston. 411 

It was thought the vengeance of the fates had been visited in 
its most appalling shape upon the place which had unwittingly in- 
curred its wrath. 

It was fortunate after all, however, that those compelled to en- 
dure such trials were temporarily deprived of their understanding ; 
were so stunned that they could not appreciate the enormity of the 
punishment. 

The first loss of life reported was at Eietter's saloon, in the 
Strand, where three of the most prominent citizens of the town— 
Stanley G. Spencer, Charles Kellner and Richard Lord— lost their 
lives and many others were maimed and imprisoned. These three 
were sitting at a table on the first floor Saturday night, making 
light of the danger, when the roof suddenly caved in and came 
down with a crash, killing them. Those in the lower part of the 
building escaped with their lives in a miraculous manner, as the 
falling roof and flooring caught on the bar, enabling the people 
standing near it to crawl under the debris. It required several 
hours of hard work to get them out, The negro waiter who was sent 
for a doctor was drowned at Strand and Twenty-first streets, his 
body being found a short time afterward. 

THE DEAD AND THE LIVING. 

Fully 700 people were congregated at the City Hall, most of 
them more or less injured in various ways. One man from Lucas 
Terrace reported the loss of fifty lives in the building from which 
he escaped. He himself was severely injured about the head. 

Passing along Tremont street, out as far as Avenue P, climbing 
over the piles of lumber which had once been residences, four bod- 
ies were observed in one yard and seven in one room in another 
place, while as many as sixty corpses were seen lying singly and 
in groups in the space of one block. A majority of the drowned, 
however, were under the ruined houses. The body of Miss Sarah 
Summers was found near her home, corner of Tremont street and 
Avenue F, her lips smiling, but her features set in death, her hands 
grasping her diamonds tightly. The remains of her sister, Mrs. 
Claude Fordtran, were never found. 



412 Destruction of Galveston. 

The report from St. Mary's Infirmary showed that only eight 
persons escaped from that hospital. The number of patients and 
nurses was one hundred. Rosenberg Schoolhouse, chosen as a 
place of refuge by the people of that locality, collapsed. Few of 
those who had taken refuge there escaped— how many cannot be 
told and will never be known. 

Never before had the Sabbath sun risen upon such a sight, and 
as though unable -to endure it, the god of the day soon veiled his 
face behind dull and leaden clouds, and refused to shine. 

Surely it was enough to draw tears even from inanimate things. 

At the Union Depot Baggagemaster Harding picked up the life- 
less form of a baby girl within a few feet of the station. Its pa- 
rents were among the lost. The station building was selected as 
a place of refuge by hundreds of people, and although all the win- 
dows and a portion of the south wall at the top were blown in, and 
the occupants expected every moment to be their last, escape was 
impossible, for about the building the water was fully twelve feet 
deep. A couple of small shanties were floating about, but there 
was no means of making a raft or getting a boat. 

Every available building in the city was used as a hospital. As 
for the dead, they were being put. away anywhere. In one large 
grocery store on Tremont street all the space that could be cleared 
was occupied by the wounded. 

It was nothing strange to see the dead and crippled everywhere, 
and the living were so fascinated by the dead they could hardly 
be dragged away from the spots where the corpses were piled. 

There were dead by the score, by the hundreds and by the thou- 
sands. 

It was a city of the dead ; a vast battlefield, the slain being vic- 
tims of flood and gale. 

The dead were at rest, but the living had to suffer, for no aid 
was at hand. 

In the business portion of the town the damage could not be 
even approximately estimated. The wholesale houses along the 
Strand had about seven feet of water on their ground floors, and all 
window panes and glass protectors of all kinds were demolished. 

On Mechanic street the water was almost, as deep as on the 



Destruction of Galveston. 413 

Strand. All provisions in the wholesale groceries and goods on 
the lower floors were saturated and rendered valueless. 

PATHETIC SCENES. 

In clearing away the ruins of the Catholic Orphans' Home 
heartrending evidence of the heroism and love of the Sisters was 
discovered. 

Bodies of the little folks were found which indicated by their 
position that heroic measures were taken to keep them together so 
that all might be saved. 

The Sisters had tied them together in bunches of eight and then 
tied the cords around their own waists. In this way they probably 
hoped to quiet the children's fears and lead them to safety. 

The storm struck the Home with such terrific force that the 
structure fell, carrying the inmates with it and burying them under 
tons of debris. 

Two crowds of children, tied and attached to Sisters, were 
found. In one heap the children were piled on the Sisters, and 
the arms of one little girl were clasped around a Sister's neck. 

In the wreck of the Home over ninety children and Sisters were 
killed. It was first believed that they had been washed out to sea, 
but the discovery of the little groups in the ruins indicated that alL 
were killed and buried under the wreckage. 

Sunday and Monday were days of the greatest suffering, al- 
though the population had hardly sufficiently recovered from the 
shock of the mighty calamity to realize that they were hungry and 
cold. 

On Monday all relief trains sent from other cities toward Gal- 
veston were forced to turn back, the tracks being washed away. 

APPEAL POK HELP. 

On Tuesday Mayor Jones of Galveston sent out the following 
appeal to the country: 

"It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 5,000 
people have lost their lives here. Approximately one-third of the 
residence portion of the city has been swept away. There are sev- 



414 Destruction of Galveston. 

eral thousand people who are homeless and destitute— how many 
there is no way of finding out. Arrangements are now being made 
to have the women and children sent to Houston and other places, 
but the means of transportation are limited. Thousands are still 
to be cared for here. We appeal to you for immediate aid. 

"Walter J. Jones, Mayor of Galveston." 

Some relief had been sent in, the railroad to Texas City, six 
miles away, having been repaired, boats taking the supplies from 
that point into Galveston. 

Food and women's clothing were the things most needed just 
then. While the men could get along with the clothes they had on 
and what they had secured since Sunday, the women suffered con- 
siderably, and there was much sickness among them in consequence. 
It was noticeable, however, that the women of the city had, by their 
example, been instrumental in reviving the drooping spirits of the 
men. There was a better feeling prevalent Tuesday among the in- 
habitants, as news had been received that within a few days the 
acute distress would be over, except in the matter of shelter. Every 
house standing was damp and unhealthy, and some of the wounded 
were not getting along as well as hoped. Many of the injured had 
been sent out of town to Texas City, Houston and other places, but 
hundreds still remained. It would have endangered their lives to 
move them. 

LOOTING AND PLUNDER. 

Tuesday night ninety negro looters were shot in their tracks by 
citizen guards. One of them was searched and $700 found, to- 
gether with four diamond rings and two water-soaked gold watches. 
The finger of a white woman with a gold band around it was 
clutched in his hands. 

In the afternoon, at the suggestion of Colonel Hawley, a 
mounted squad of nineteen men, under Adjutant Brokridge, was 
detailed by Major Faylings to search a house where negro looters 
were known to have secreted plunder. 

"Shoot them in their tracks, boys! We want no prisoners/ ' 
said the Major. The plunderers changed their location before the 



Destruction of Galveston. 415 

arrival of the detachment, however, and the raiders came back 
empty-handed. Twenty cases of looting were reported between 3 
and 6 in the evening. 

At 6 o'clock a report reached Major Faylings that twenty ne- 
groes were robbing a house at Nineteenth and Beach streets. 

"Plant them," commanded the young Major, as a half dozen 
citizen soldiers, led by a corporal, mustered before him for orders. 

' ' I want every one of those twenty negroes, dead or alive, ' ' said 
the Major. 

The squad left on the double quick. Half an hour later they 
reported ten of the plunderers killed. 

UNDER MARTIAL LAW. 

The following order was posted on the streets at noon of Tues- 
day: 

' ' To the Public : The city of Galveston being under martial law, 
and all good citizens being now enrolled in some branch of the pub- 
lic service, it becomes necessary, to preserve the peace, that all 
arms in this city be placed in the hands of the military. All good 
citizens are forbidden to carry arms, except by written permission 
from the Mayor or Chief of Police or the Major commanding. All 
good citizens are hereby commanded to deliver all arms and am- 
munition to the city and take Major Faylings' receipt. 

"Walter C. Jones, Mayor." 

WHAT A RELIEF PARTY SAW SUNDAY MORNING. 

Starting as soon as the water began to recede Sunday morning, 
a relief party began the work of rescuing the wounded and dying 
from the ruins of their homes. The scenes presented were almost 
beyond description. Screaming women, bruised and bleeding, 
some of them bearing the lifeless forms of children in their arms ; 
men, broken-hearted and sobbing, bewailing the loss of their wives 
and children; streets filled with floating rubbish, among which 
there were many bodies of the victims of the storm, constituted part 



416 Destkuction op Galveston. 

of the awful picture. In every direction, as far as the eye could 
reach, the scene of desolation and destruction continued. 

It was certainly enough to cause the stoutest heart to quail and 
grow sick, and yet the searchers well knew they could not unveil 
one-hundredth part of the misery the destructive elements had 
brought about. 

They knew, also, that the full import and heaviness of the blow 
could not be realized for days to come. 

Although those in the relief party were prepared to see the nat^ 
ural evidences following upon the heels of the mighty storm, they 
did not anticipate such frightful revelations. 

It was a butchery without precedent; a gathering of victims 
that was so ghastly as to be beyond the power of any man to picture. 

AN ATMOSPHEBE OF GLOOM. 

As the party went on the members met others, who made re- 
ports of things that had come under their notice. There were fifty 
killed or drowned in one section of the town; one hundred in an- 
other; five hundred in another. The list grew larger with each report. 

It was a. matter of wonder, and increasing wonder, too, that a 
single soul escaped to tell the tale. 

No one seemed entirely sane, for there was madness in the very 
air. 

All moved in an atmosphere of gloom ; it was difficult to move 
and breathe with so much death on all sides. 

' Yet no one could keep his eyes off of those horrible, fascinating 
corpses. They riveted the gaze. 

Life and death were often so closely intermingled they could 
not be told apart. 

It was the apotheosis of the frightful. 

Those who had escaped the hurricane and flood were search- 
ing for missing dear ones in such a listless way as to irresistibly 
convey the idea that they did not care whether they found them or 
not. 

It was the languor of hopelessness and despair. 

Some of those who had lost their all were even merry, but it 
was the glee of insanity. 



Destruction of Galveston - . 417 

As Sunday morning dawned the streets were lined with people, 
half -clad, crippled in every conceivable manner, hobbling as best 
they could to where they could receive attention of physicians for 
themselves and summon aid for friends and relatives who could not 
move. 

THE LOSS OF EVERYTHING. 

Police Officer John Bowie, who had recently been awarded a 
prize as the most popular officer in the city, was in a pitiable con- 
dition ; the toes on both of his feet were broken, two ribs caved in, 
and his head badly bruised, but his own condition, he said, was 
nothing. 

"My house, with wife and children, is in the gulf. I have not 
a thing on earth for which to live." 

The houses of all prominent citizens which escaped destruction 
were turned into hospitals, as were also the leading hotels. There 
was scarcely one of the houses left standing which did not contain 
one or more of the dead as well as many injured. 

The rain began to pour down in torrents and the party went 
bask down Tremont street toward the city. The misery of the poor 
people, all mangled and hurt, pressing to the city for medical at- 
tention, was greatly augmented by this rain. Stopping at a small 
grocery store to avoid the rain, the party found it packed with in- 
jured. The provisions in the store had been ruined, and there was 
nothing for the numerous customers who came hungry and tired. 
The place was a hospital, no longer a store. 

Further down the street a restaurant, which had been sub- 
merged by water, was serving out soggy crackers and cheese to the 
hungry crowd. That was all that was left. The food was soaked 
full of water, and the people who were fortunate enough to get 
those sandwiches were hungry and made no complaint. 

It was hard to determine what section of the city suffered the 
greatest damage and loss of life. Information from both the ex- 
treme eastern and extreme western portions of the city was difficult 
to obtain at that time. 

In fact, it was nearly impossible, but the reports received indi- 



418 Destruction of Galveston. 

cated that those two sections had suffered the same fate as the rest 
of the city and to a greater degree. 

Thus the relief party wended its way through streets which, 
but a few hours before, were teeming with life. 

Now they were the thoroughfares of death. 

It did not seem as if they could ever resound to the throb of 
quickened vitality again. 

It seemed as though it would take years to even remove the 
wreckage. 

As to rebuilding, it appeared as the work of ages. 

Annihilation was everywhere. 

THE PEOPLE APATHETIC. 

It was an absolute impossibility for anyone to form an idea of 
the extent and magnitude of the disaster within a week of its oc- 
currence. The morning of Sunday, when the wind and the waves 
had subsided, the streets of the city were found clogged with debris 
of all sorts. The people of Galveston could not realize for several 
days what had happened. Four thousand houses had been entirely 
demolished and hardly a building in the city was fit for habitation. 

The people were apathetic; they wandered around the streets 
in an aimless sort of way, unable to do anything or make prepara- 
tions to repair the great damage done. The Monday following the 
catastrophe Galveston was practically in the hands of thieves, 
thugs, ghouls, vampires, and bandits, some of them women, who 
robbed the dead, mutilated the corpses which were lying every- 
where, ransacked business houses and residences and created a 
reign of terror which lasted until the officers in command of the 
force of regulars stationed at the beach barracks sent a company 
of men to patrol the streets. The governor of the State ordered 
out all the regiments of the National Guard and various associa- 
tions of business men also supplied men, who assisted the soldiers 
in doing patrol duty in the city and suburbs. 

The depredations of the lawless element were of an inconceiv- 
ably brutal character. Unprotected women, whether found upon 
the streets or in their houses, were subjected to outrage or assault 



Destruction of Galveston. 419 

and robbed of their clothing and jewelry. Pedestrians were held 
up on the public thoroughfare in broad daylight and compelled to 
give up all valuables in their possession. The bodies of the dead 
were despoiled of everything, and in their haste, to secure valuables 
the ghouls would mutilate the corpses, cutting off fingers to obtain 
the rings thereon and amputating the, ears of the women to get 
the earrings worn therein. 

VAMPIRES AND THIEVES. 

The majority of the thieves and vampires belonged in the city 
of Galveston and were re-enforced by desperadoes from outside 
towns, like Houston, Austin, and New Orleans, who took advantage 
of the rush to the city immediately after the disaster, obtaining free 
transportation on the railroad and steamers upon a pretense that 
they were going to Galveston for the purpose of working with relief 
parties and the gangs assigned for burial of the dead. Their out- 
rages became so flagrant and the people of the city became so ter- 
rified in consequence of their depredations that the city author- 
ities, unable to cope with them, most of the officers of the police de- 
partment having been victims of the flood, that an appeal was made 
to the governor to send state troops and procure the preservation 
of order. Captain Eafferty, commanding Battery of the First 
Regiment of Artillery, U. S. A., was also implored to lend his aid 
in putting down the lawless bands, and he accordingly sent all the 
men in his command who had not met death in the gale. 

There was some delay in getting the state troops to Galveston 
because so many miles of railroad had been washed away, the Ad- 
jutant General being compelled to notify some companies of militia 
by courier, but Captain Rafferty ordered his men on duty at once, 
with instructions to promptly shoot all persons found despoiling 
the dead. Most of the vampires were negroes, some of them, how- 
ever, being white, women, the latter being as savage and merciless 
in their treatment of the dead as the most abandoned of their male 
companions. 

The regulars were put on duty on Tuesday night, and before 
morning had shot several of the thugs, who were executed on the 



420 Destruction of Galveston. 

spot when found in the act of robbery. In every instance the pock- 
ets of the harpies slain by the United States troops were found 
filled with jewelry and other valuables, and in some cases, notably 
that of one negro, fingers were found in their possession which had 
been cut from the hands of the dead, the vampires being in such a 
hurry that they could not wait to tear the rings off. On Wednes- 
day evening the government troops came across a gang of fifty 
desperadoes, who were despoiling the bodies of the dead found en- 
meshed in the debris of a large apartment house. With com- 
mendable promptness the regulars put the ghouls under arrest, and 
finding the proceeds of their robberies in their possession lined 
them up against a brick wall and, without ceremony, shot every one 
of them. In cases where the villains were not killed at the first 
fire the sergeant administered coup de grace. Many of the 
thugs begged piteously for mercy, but no attention was paid to their 
feelings, and they suffered the same stern fate as the rest. 

When the state troops arrived in the city they took the same 
severe measures, and the result was that within forty-eight hours 
the city was as safe as it had ever been. The police arrested every 
suspicious character and the jail and cells at the police station 
were filled to overflowing. These people were deported as soon as 
possible and notified that if they returned they would be shot with- 
out warning. The temper of the citizens of Galveston was such 
that they would not temporize in any case with those who were 
neither criminals nor inclined to work. Every able-bodied man in 
town was impressed for duty in relief and burial parties, and when- 
ever an individual refused to do the work required he was promptly 
shot. By Thursday morning all the men required had been ob- 
tained and relief and burial parties were filled to the quota deemed 
necessary, and the work of disposing of the bodies of the dead, ad- 
ministering to the wants of the wounded and the clearing of the 
streets of the debris was proceeding satisfactorily. 

DECOMPOSITION OF BODIES. 

The dead lay .in the streets and vacant places in hundreds and 
the heat of the sun began to have its natural effect. Decomposi- 
tion set in and the stench became unbearable. At first an effort 



Destruction of Galveston. 421 

was made to identify the corpses, but it was soon found that work 
could not be proceeded with, as any delay imperiled the living. 
Fears entertained in regard to pestilence were speedily verified, 
and the people of the city were taken ill by scores. It was difficult 
to obtain men to perform the duty of burying the bloated corpses of 
the victims of the catastrophe, and consequently the city author- 
ities ordered that the dead be loaded on barges, taken a few miles 
out to sea, weighted and thrown into the water. The ground had 
become so water-soaked that it was impossible to dig graves or 
trenches for the reception of the bodies, although in many instances 
people buried relatives and friends in their yards and the ground 
surrounding their residence. Along the beach hundreds of corpses 
were buried in the sand, but the majority of the burials were at 
sea. By Wednesday night 2,500 bodies had been cast into the 
water, while about 500 had been interred within the city limits. 
Precautions were taken, however, to mark the graves and when the 
ground had dried sufficiently the bodies were disinterred and taken 
to the various cemeteries where, after burial, suitable memorials 
were erected to mark their last resting place. No attempts were 
made at identification after Wednesday, lists being simply made of 
the number of victims. The graves of those buried in the sand 
were marked by headboards with the inscriptions, "White man, 
aged forty;" "White woman, aged twenty-five," and "male" or 
"female" child, as the case might be. 

DISPOSING OF THE BEAD. 

So accustomed did the burial parties become to the handling 
of the dead that they treated the bodies as though they were merely 
carcasses of animals and not bodies of human beings, and they 
were dumped into the trenches prepared for their reception with- 
out ceremony of any kind. The excavations were then filled up as 
hurriedly as possible, the sand being packed down tightly. This 
might have seemed inhuman, unfeeling, and brutal, but the exi- 
gencies of the situation demanded that the corpses be put out of 
the way as speedily as possible. Great difficulty was experienced 
in securing men to transport bodies to the wharves where the 



422 Destruction of Galveston. 

barges lay, and it was practically an impossibility to get anyone 
to touch the bodies of the negro victims, decomposition having set 
in earlier than in the cases of the whites, and had it not been that 
members of the fire department volunteered their services the re- 
mains of the negroes would have remained unburied for a longer 
time than they were. 

BODIES TO THE FLAMES. 

The bodies of the dead were now so offensive that to attempt 
identification was impossible. Fears were entertained that con- 
tagion would spring from the surroundings. Pestilence could only 
be avoided by cremation. That was the order of the day. Human 
corpses, dead animals and all debris were therefore to be submitted 
to the flames. On Thursday upward of 400 bodies, mostly women 
and children, were cremated, and the work went rapidly on. They 
were gathered in heaps of twenty and forty bodies, saturated with 
kerosene and the torch applied. 

CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY. 

A conflict of authority, due to a. misunderstanding, precipitated 
a temporary disorganization of the policing of the city of Galves- 
ton on Thursday. When General Scurry, Adjutant General of 
the Texas National Guard, arrived at Galveston on Tuesday night, 
with about 200 militia from Houston, he at once conferred with the 
Chief of Police as to the plans for guarding property, protecting 
the lives of citizens and preserving law and order. An order was 
then issued by the Chief of Police to the effect that the soldiers 
should arrest all persons found carrying arms, unless they showed 
a written order, signed by the Chief of Police or Mayor of the city, 
giving them permission to go armed. 

Sheriff Thomas had, meantime, appointed and sworn in 150 
special deputy sheriffs. These deputies were supplied with a rib- 
boned badge of authority, but were not given any written or printed 
commission. Acting under the order issued by the Chief of Police, 
Major Hunt McCaleb of Galveston, who was appointed as aide to 
General Scurry, issued an order to the militia to arrest all persons 



Destruction of Galveston. 423 

carrying arms without the proper authority. The result was that 
about fifty citizens wearing deputy sheriff badges were taken into 
custody by the soldiers and taken to police headquarters. 

The soldiers had no way of knowing by what authority the men 
were acting with these badges, and would listen to no excuses. 

General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas, hearing of the wholesale 
arrests, called at police headquarters and consulted with Acting 
Chief Amundsen. The latter referred General Scurry to Mayor 
Jones. Then General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas held a confer- 
ence at the City Hall. These two officers soon arrived at an un- 
derstanding, and an agreement was decided upon to the effect that 
all persons deputized as deputy sheriffs and all persons appointed 
as special officers should be permitted to carry arms and pass in 
and out of the guard lines. General Scurry suggested that the 
deputy sheriffs and special police— and the regular police, for that 
matter— guard the city during the daytime and that the militia 
take charge of the city at night. 

General Scurry was acting for and by authority granted by 
Mayor Jones, and promptly said he was there to work in harmony 
with the city and county authorities, and that there would be no 
conflict. When General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas called upon 
the Mayor, the Mayor said that he knew that if the Adjutant Gen- 
eral, the Chief of Police and the Sheriff would get together they 
could take care of the police work. 

It was known that people were coming to Galveston by the 
score ; that many of them had no business there, and that the city 
had enough to do to watch the lawless element of Galveston with- 
out being burdened with the care of outsiders. 

All deputy sheriffs wearing the badge issued by the Sheriff 
carried arms thereafter and made arrests, and were not interfered 
with in any way by the military guards. 

SUPPLIES DELAYED AND PEOPLE STARVING. 

On Thursday, September 13, trainload after trainload of pro- 
visions, clothing, disinfectants and medicines were lined up at 
Texas City, six miles from Galveston, all sent to the suffering sur- 



424 Destruction or Galveston. 

vivors of tlie storm-swept city. Across the bay were thousands of 
people, friends of the dead and living, waiting for news of the miss- 
ing ones and an opportunity to help, but only a meager amount of 
relief had at that time reached the stricken town. Two telegraph 
wires had been put up and partial communication restored to let 
the outside world know that conditions there were far more horrible 
than was at first supposed. That was about all. It was not that 
which was needed; it was a more practicable connection with the 
mainland. True, more boats had been pressed into service to 
carry succor to the suffering and the suffering to succor, but they 
were few and small, and although working diligently night and 
day the service was inadequate in the extreme. And the people 
were still suffering— the sick dying for want of medicine and care ; 
the well growing desperate and in many cases gradually losing 
their reason. 

While there were many who could not be provided for because 
the necessary articles for them could not be carried in, there were 
hundreds who were being benefited. Those supplies which had 
arrived had been of great assistance, but they were far from ample 
to provide for even a small percentage of the sufferers, estimated 
at 30,000. Even the rich were hungry. An effort was being made 
on the part of the authorities to provide for those in the greatest 
need, but this was found to be difficult work, so many were there in 
sad condition. A rigid system of issuing supplies was established, 
and the regular soldiers and a number of citizens were sworn in 
as policemen. These attended to the issuing of rations as soon as 
the boats arrived. 

Every effort was put forth to reach the dying first, but all sorts 
of obstacles were encountered, because many of them were so badly 
maimed and wounded that they were unable to apply to the relief 
committees, and the latter were so burdened by the great number of 
direct applications that they were unable to send out messengers. 

The situation grew worse every minute ; everything was needed 
for man and beast— disinfectants, prepared foods, hay, grain, and 
especially water and ice. Scores more of people died that day as 
a result of inattention and many more were on the verge of disso- 
lution, for at best it was to be many days before a train could be 



Destruction of Galveston. 425 

run into the city, and the only hope was the arrival of more boats to 
transport the goods. 

RELIEF COMMITTEES HARD AT WORK. 

The relief committee held a meeting and decided that armed 
men were needed to assist in bnrying the dead and clearing wreck- 
age, and arrangements were made to fill this demand. There were 
plenty of volunteers for this work but an insufficiency of arms. The 
proposition of trying to pay for work was rejected by the commit- 
tee, and it was decided to go ahead impressing men into service, 
issuing orders for rations only to those who worked or were unable 
to work. 

Word was received that refugees would be carried from the city 
to Houston free of charge. An effort was made to induce all who 
were able to leave to go, because the danger of pestilence was fright- 
fully apparent. 

There were any number willing to depart, and each outgoing 
boat, after having unloaded its provisions, was filled with people. 
The safety of the living was a paramount consideration, and the 
action of the railroads in offering to carry refugees free of charge 
greatly relieved the situation. The workers had their hands full 
in any event, and the nurses and physicians also, for neglect, al- 
though unavoidable, often resulted in the death of many. 

It was estimated $2,500,000 would be needed for the relief work. 
The banks of Galveston subscribed $10,000, but personal losses of 
the citizens of Galveston had been so large that very few were able 
to subscribe anything. The confiscation of all foodstuffs held by 
wholesale grocers and others was decided upon early in the day by 
the relief committee. Starvation would inevitably ensue unless 
the supply was dealt out with great care. All kerosene oil was 
gone, and the gas works and electric lights were destroyed. The 
committee asked for a shipload of kerosene oil, a shipload of drink- 
ing water and tons of disinfectants, such as lime and formaldehyde, 
for immediate use, and money and food next. Not a tallow candle 
could be bought for gold, or light of any kind procured. 

No baker was making bread, and milk was remembered as a 
past luxury only. 



426 Destkuction of Galveston. 

What was there to do with? 

Everything was gone in the way of ovens and utensils. 

It was absolutely necessary to let the outside world know the 
true state of things. 

The city was unable to help itself. 

In fact, a great part of the mighty, noble State of Texas was 
prostrate. 

Even the country at large was paralyzed at the sense of the 
magnitude of the disaster, and was for the time being powerless 
to do anything. 

The entire world was thrilled with alarm, it being instinctively 
felt that the worst had not yet been made known. 

Twenty-five thousand people had to be clothed and fed for many 
weeks, and many thousands supplied with household goods as well. 
Much money was required to make their residences even fit to 
live in. 

During the first few days after the disaster it was almost be- 
yond possibility ' to make any estimate of the amount of money 
necessary to even temporarily relieve the sufferings of the unfor- 
tunate people. 

APPEAL THROUGH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. 

As a means of enlightenment Major IX. G. Lowe, business man- 
ager of the Galveston News, was asked to send out a statement to 
the Associated Press for dissemination throughout the globe, and 
he accordingly dispatched the following to Colonel Charles S. 
Diehl, General Manager of the Associated Press, at the headquar- 
ters in Chicago: 

"Galveston, Texas, Sept. 12.— Charles S. Diehl, General Man- 
ager the Associated Press, Chicago : A summary of the conditions 
prevailing at Galveston is more than human intellect can master. 
Briefly stated, the damage to property is anywhere between $15,- 
000,000 and $20,000,000. The loss of life cannot be computed. No 
lists could be kept and all is simply guesswork. Those thrown out 
to sea and buried on the ground wherever found will reach the hor- 
rible total of at least 3,000 souls. 



Destetjction of Galveston. 427 

"My estimate of the loss on the island of the City of Galveston 
and the immediate surrounding district is between 4,000 and 5,000 
deaths. I do not make this statement in fright or excitement. The 
whole story will never be told, because it cannot be told. The ne- 
cessities of those living are total. Not a single individual escaped 
property loss. The property on the island is wrecked; fully one- 
half totally swept out of existence. What our needs are can be com- 
puted by the world at large by the statement herewith submitted 
much better than I could possibly summarize them. The help must 
be immediate. R. G. Lowe, 

"Manager Galveston News." 

Thursday evening at the Tremont Hotel, in Galveston, occurred 
a wedding that was not attended with music and flowers and a 
gathering of merrymaking friends and relatives. On the contra- 
ry, it was peculiarly sad. Mrs. Brice Roberts expected some day 
to marry Ernest Muyo ; the storm which desolated so many homes 
deprived her of almost everything on earth— father, mother, sis- 
ter and brother. She was left destitute. Her sweetheart, too, was 
a sufferer. He lost much of his possessions in Dickinson, but he 
stepped bravely forward and took his sweetheart to his home. 

Galveston began, September 14, to emerge from the valley of 
the shadow of death into which she had been plunged for nearly a 
week, and on that day for the first time actual progress was made 
toward clearing up the city. The bodies of those killed and 
drowned in the storm had for the most part been disposed of. A 
large number was found when the debris was removed from 
wrecked buildings, but on that date there were no corpses to be 
seen save those occasionally cast up by the sea. As far as sight, 
at least, was concerned, the city was cleared of its dead. 

They had been burned, thrown into the water, buried— anything 
to get them quickly out of sight. The chief danger of pestilence 
was due almost entirely to the large number of unburied cattle 
lying upon the island, whose decomposing carcasses polluted the 
air to an almost unbearable extent. This, however, was not in the 
city proper, but was a condition prevailing on the outskirts of Gal- 



428 Destkitction of Galveston. 

veston. One great trouble heretofore had been the inability to or- 
ganize gangs of laborers for the purpose of clearing the streets. 

FOUR DAYS AFTER THE CATASTROPHE. 

The situation in the stricken city on Wednesday, September 12, 
was horrible indeed. Men, women and children were dying for 
want of food, and scores went insane from the terrible strain to 
which they had been subjected. 

In his appeal to the country for aid, issued on Tuesday, Sep- 
tember 11, Mayor Walter J. Jones said fully 5,000 people had lost 
their lives during the hurricane, this estimate being based upon 
personal information. Captain Charles Clarke, a vessel owner of 
Galveston, and a reliable man, said the death list would be even 
greater than that, and he was backed in his opinion by several other 
conservative men who had no desire to exaggerate the losses, but 
felt that they were justified in letting the country know the full ex- 
tent of the disaster in order that the necessary relief might be sup- 
plied. 

It was the general opinion that to hide any of the facts would be 
criminal. 

Captain Clarke was not a sensationalist, but he well knew that 
the truth was what the people of the United States wanted at that 
time. 

If the people of the country at large felt they were being de- 
ceived in anything they would be apt to close their pocketbooks 
and refuse to give anything. 

If told the truth they would respond to the appeal for aid gen- 
erously. 

When relief finally began to pour in it was remarkable how 
soon the women of the city plucked up courage and went to work 
with the men. 

They had suffered frightfully, but they refused to give up hope. 

Many called upon the mayor and offered their services as nurses. 

Others prepared bandages for the wounded and aided the phy- 
sicians in procuring medicines for the sick. 

They went among the men who were engaged in burying and 




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Destruction of Galveston. 431 

otherwise disposing of the dead and cheered them with bright faces 
and soothing words. 

They were everywhere, and their presence was as rays of sun- 
shine after the black clouds of the storm. 

A regular fleet of steamers and barges was plying between Gal- 
veston and Texas City, only six miles distant, and which had rail- 
way communication with all parts of the United States. As the 
railroad line to Texas City had been repaired, trains were sent in 
there as close together as possible, but this did not prevent many 
hundreds in Galveston from dying of starvation and lack of med- 
ical attendance. 

OFFICIAL VERSION OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

A leading city official of Galveston gave the following version 
of the Reign of Terror, as the regime of the thugs and ghouls was 
called : 

"Galveston has suffered in every conceivable way since the 
catastrophe of Saturday. Hurricane and flood came first; then 
famine, and then vandalism. Scores of reckless criminals flocked to 
the city by the first boats that landed there, and were unchecked in 
their work of robbery of the helpless dead Monday and Tuesday. 

"Wednesday, however, Captain Eafferty, commanding the reg- 
ulars at the beach barracks, sent seventy men of an artillery com- 
pany there to do guard duty in the streets, and, being ordered to 
promptly shoot all those found looting, carried out their instruc- 
tions to the letter. 

' ' Over 100 ghouls were shot Wednesday afternoon and evening, 
and no mercy was shown vandals. If they were not killed at the 
first volley the troops— regulars of the United States army and 
those of the Texas National Guard— saw that the coup de grace 
was administered. 

"Most of the robbers were negroes, and when executed were 
found loaded with spoil— jewelry wrenched from the bodies of 
women, money and watches and silverware and other articles taken 
from residences and business houses. 

"Not only had these fiends robbed the dead, but they mutilated 



432 Destruction of Galveston. 

the bodies as well, in many instances fingers and ears of dead wom- 
en being amputated in order to secure the jewelry. Some of the 
business organizations of the city also furnished guards to assist 
in patrolling the streets, and fully 1.000 men were on duty. 

TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL AND SHOT. 

11 Wednesday evening the regulars shot forty-nine ghouls after 
they had been tried by court-martial, having found them in posses- 
sion of large quantities of plunder. The vandals begged for mercy, 
but none was shown them, and they were speedily put out of the 
way. The bandits, as a rule, obtained transportation to the city by 
representing themselves as having been engaged to do relief work 
and to aid in burying the dead. Shortly after the first bunch of 
thieves was executed another party of twenty was shot. The out- 
laws were afterward put out of the way by twos and threes, it 
being their habit to travel in gangs and never alone. In every in- 
stance the pockets of these bandits were found filled with plunder. 

4 'More than 2,000 bodies had been thrown into the sea up to 
Wednesday night, this having been decided upon by the author- 
ities as the only way of preventing a visitation of pestilence, which, 
they felt, should not be added to the horrors the city had already ex- 
perienced. Tuesday evening, shortly before darkness set in, three 
barges, containing 700 bodies, were sent out to sea, the corpses 
being thrown into the water after being heavily weighted to pre- 
vent the possibility of their afterward coming to the surface. As 
there were few volunteers for this ghastly work, troops and police 
officers were sent out to impress men for the service, but while 
these unwilling laborers, after being filled with liquor, agreed to 
handle the bodies of white men, women and children, nothing could 
induce them to touch the negro dead. Finally city firemen came 
forward and attended to the disposal of the corpses of the colored 
victims. These were badly decomposed, and it was absolutely 
necessary to get them out of the way to prevent infection. 

' ' No attempt had been made so far to gather up the dead at night, 
because the gas and electric-light plants were so badly damaged 
that they could furnish no illumination whatever. By Thursday 



Destruction of Galveston. 433 

night, however, some of the arc lights were ready for use. After 
Wednesday morning no efforts at identification were made by the 
searchers after the dead, it being imperative that the bodies be dis- 
posed of as soon as possible. While the barges containing the 
bodies were on their way out to sea lists were made, but that was 
the only care taken in regard to the victims, many of whom were 
among the most prominent people of the city. Of the hundreds 
buried at Virginia Point and other places along the coast not 10 
per cent were identified, the stakes at the heads of the hastily dug 
graves simply being marked, 'White woman, aged 30,' 'White man, 
aged 45, ' or ' Male ' or ' Female child. ' * 

"Ninety-six bodies were buried at Texas City, all but eight of 
which floated to that place from Galveston. Some were identified, 
but the great majority were not. State troops were stationed at 
Texas City and Virginia Point to prevent those who could not give 
a satisfactory account of themselves from boarding boats bound for 
Galveston. In burying the dead along the shore of the gulf no cof- 
fins were used, the supply being exhausted. There was no time to 
knock even an ordinary pine box together. Cases were known 
where people have buried their dead in their yards. 

CREMATING THE DEAD. 

"As soon as possible the work of cremating the bodies of the 
dead began. Vast funeral pyres were erected and the corpses 
placed thereon, the incineration being under the supervision of the 
fire department. Matters had come to such a pass that even the 
easting of bodies into the sea was not only dangerous to those who 
handled them, but there was the utmost danger in carrying the 
decomposed, putrefying masses of human flesh through the streets 
to the barges on the beach. The cemeteries were not fit for burial 
purposes, and no attempt whatever was made to reach them until 
the ground was thoroughly dried out. Then the bodies of those 
buried in private grounds, yards and in the sands along the beach, 
not only on Galveston Island but at Virginia Point and Texas City. 
were removed to the public places of interment, where suitable me- 
morials were set up to mark their last resting places, It might 



434 Destruction of Galveston. 

have been deemed unfeeling and even brutal, but the fact was that 
the bodies of the unidentified victims received small consideration, 
being handled roughly by the workmen, and thrown into the tem- 
porary graves along the beach as though they were animals and 
not the remains of human beings. No prayers were uttered save 
in isolated instances, and the poor, mangled bodies were consigned 
to the trench as hurriedly as possible. The burying parties had 
no time for sentiment, and so accustomed had the workers in the 
'dead gangs,' as they were named, become to their grewsome 
task that they even laughed and joked when laying away the 
corpses. 

' ' Special attention was given the wounded. Physicians were on 
duty all the time, some of them not having been to bed since Fri- 
day night longer than an hour at a time. Victims not badly hurt 
were put aside for those suffering and actually requiring the ser- 
vices of surgeons. There were thousands of them. There were 
few in Galveston who did not bear the marks of wounds of some 
sort." 

THE SITUATION A WEEK AETE&WA&DS. 

A newspaper correspondent who had unusual facilities for get- 
ting at the true state of affairs summed up the situation on Satur- 
day, September 15, just a week after the awful visitation, as fol- 
lows : 

"The first week of Galveston's suffering has passed away, and 
the extent of the disaster which wind and flood brought to the city 
seems greater than it did even when the blow had just been struck. 

"That 5,000 or more of the 40,000 men, women and children 
who made up the population of the city seven days ago are dead 
is almost certain. And the money value of the damage to the 
property of the citizens is so great that no one can attempt to esti- 
mate it within $5,000,000 of the real amount. 

"In one thing the effects of the flood are irreparable. Water 
now covers 5,300,000 square feet of ground that was formerly a 
part of the city, but which now can never be reclaimed from the 
gulf. 

"A strip of land three miles long and from 350 to 400 feet wide 



jJestkuction of Galveston. 435 

along the south side of the city, where the finest residences stood, 
is now covered by the waves even at low tide. The Beach Hotel 
now has its foundations in the gulf, although before the hurricane 
it had a fine beach 400 feet wide in front of it. This land is gone 
forever. 

"Like men stunned and dazed, the survivors of the flood have 
worked and struggled to bury their dead and to make the city hab- 
itable for the living, but it may be doubted whether they even yet 
realize to the full extent what they have lost, or guess the suffering 
that is in store for them when their moments of leisure come and they 
begin to miss their friends and loved ones who are dead. 

"It is certain now that, however much Galveston has suffered, 
the city will be rebuilt and be the scene of as great a business as 
before. But few of the men of the city can pay any attention yet 
to the work that is necessary for this restoration. To-day they are 
busy with the roughest work of cleaning the city, of clearing away 
the debris, of burying the bodies which still are being discovered 
under ruins each day, and of providing for their simplest ne- 
cessities. 

i l The woman who a few days ago was the mistress of a splendid 
mansion, with every want provided for, may now be seen half-clad 
making her way through the streets in search of a little food, and 
esteeming herself fortunate if her family is still intact to gather in 
the wreckage of the former home. The man who a few days ago 
was the owner of a great business and the master of many servants 
may to-day be seen working in the trying tasks of removing wreck- 
age and hauling away to burial the decayed and unrecognizable 
bodies of the dead, under the direction of armed soldiers and dep- 
uty sheriffs, who are there to see that the work is not slighted. 

"And around every one is ruin. The broken and shattered 
houses, the scattered articles of furniture, above all the burning 
funeral pyres on which the bodies of many of the dead are being 
consumed, make the city a place of horror even to those whose per- 
sonal wants are best provided for. 

" The peril from the wind and waves was followed for those who 
survived by a peril of hunger and a peril of disease. There came 
also a peril to life and property from the great horde of 



436 Destruction of Galveston. 

robbers and inhuman outlaws who were attracted by the helpless 
condition of the city to seek their prey. 

"The splendid response of the country to Galveston's appeal 
for help has removed all danger of further suffering from hunger, 
and the prompt action of Governor Savers, through Adjutant Gen- 
eral Scurry, and of Mayor Jones and the citizens ' relief committee 
have re-established order and made the horrible scenes of the strip- 
ping of corpses and the assaults on persons no longer possible. The 
city is still under martial law, and it will remain so, nominally at 
least, until normal conditions otherwise have been restored. 

' ' The danger of pestilence is still great, however, and indeed the 
fear that other thousands may fall victims to a scourge of disease is 
gaining in strength and leading to an exodus of all the women and 
children and of many of the men of the city, who are crowding the 
boats to get away to the mainland. 

' ' Added to the danger from the thousands of decomposing bodies 
both of men and of beasts, which still lie under ruined houses and 
along the gulf shore, is the danger from the unflushed sewers and 
closets in the city. Until yesterday it was practically impossible 
to flush the sewers in any part of the city on account of the lack of 
water, and although the condition is now much better there is much 
of evil still. 

' ' Fevers and other diseases which may be bred under these con- 
ditions will not show themselves for ten days or longer, at the 
earliest. Some of the pl^sicians in the city have issued statements 
to-day calculated to calm the apprehensions of the citizens in this 
matter. Among them is Dr. AV. H. Blount, state health officer, who 
says that there is no great danger. He refers to the cyclone of 1867, 
which covered the city with slimy mud, and instead of breeding dis- 
ease served practically to put an end to the yellow fever then preva- 
lent. 

"The work of clearing away the debris in the streets has been 
carried on with a fair degree of vigor, and it is expected that it will 
be pushed much faster from now on. The 2,000 laborers whom it 
has been decided to bring in from outside the city for the work will 
be able to take up the task without having to worry about the safety 



Destruction of Galveston. 437 

of the remnants of their own property which they may have left 
unprotected. 

"The most important need is, however, for money to pay the 
men. Adjutant General Scurry said to-day: 'I have not a dollar 
to pay the men who are working in the streets all day long. I am 
not able to say to a single one of these men, ' ' You shall be paid for 
your work." I have not the money to make good the promise and I 
hope and believe that the country will relieve the situation. 

I < ' We must have this city cleaned up at any cost, and with the 
greatest speed possible. If it is not done with all haste, and at the 
same time done well, there may be a pestilence, and if it once breaks 
out here it will not be Galveston alone that will suffer. Such things 
spread, and it is not only for the sake of this city, but for others 
outside of this place that I urge that above all things we want 
money. 

' ' ' The nation has been most kind in its response to the appeal 
of Galveston, and from what I hear, food and disinfectants suffi- 
cient for temporary purposes at least, are here or on the way. The 
country does not understand, it cannot understand, unless it visit 
Galveston, the awful destitution prevailing here. Of all the poor 
people here, not one has anything. A majority of them could not 
furnish a single room in which to commence housekeeping even 
though they had the money to rebuild the room. 

" 'These people have absolutely nothing except what is. given 
them by the relief committee. They are in a condition of absolute 
want, they lack everything, and save for the splendid generosity of 
the nation the} 7 would be utterly without hope. ' 

I I The gangs of men in the streets are still finding every now and 
then badly decomposed bodies. Few of these relics of human life 
can be recognized, and many of them are naked and without any- 
thing about them which would lead to identification. They are dis- 
posed of as rapidly as possible, but the work is very offensive and 
the men engaged in it cannot endure it steadily for any great length 
of time. 

" 'Pull them out of the water as soon as seen and throw them 
into the flames as soon as taken from the water,' is the order, and it 
is effectually carried out. 



438 DESTEUCTioisr of Galveston. 

' ' The best work in this direction was done along the shore line 
of the gulf on the south side of the city. During the day bodies 
were found at frequent intervals, and just at sunset seven were 
found in the ruins of one house. It is expected that more will be 
found to-morrow, as the work gang that to-day found seven bodies 
will clear up the debris where it is known that fifteen people were 
killed. 

"The soldiers from Dallas and Houston who have been here 
providing for order and helping in the work of cleaning up the city 
have become exhausted and it has been necessary to relieve them. 
The Craddock Light Infantry of Terrell arrived to-day to take up 
the work. 

"The exodus to Houston and other neighboring cities is still 
going on. The sailboats across the bay are crowded to their fullest 
capacity, and they make as many round trips each day as they can." 

CROWDS OF REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

Houston was the great rendezvous for supplies sent to Galveston, 
and they poured in there by the carload, beginning with Tuesday. 
The response to the appeal for aid by the people of Galveston, on 
the part of the United States, and, in fact, every country in the 
world, was prompt and generous. 

That relief was an absolute necessity was made apparent from 
the appearance of the refugees who began to flock into Houston as 
soon as the boats began to run to Galveston after the catastrophe. 
In addition to these, thousands of strangers arrived also, and the 
Houston authorities were at a loss as to what to do with them. Some 
of these visitors were from points far distant, who had relatives in 
the storm-stricken district, and had come to learn the worst regard- 
ing them ; others there were who had come to volunteer their services 
in the relief work, but the greatest number consisted of curious 
sight-seers, almost frantic in their efforts to get to the stricken city 
and feed their eyes on the sickening, repulsive and disease-breeding 
scenes. In addition there were hundreds of the sufferers themselves, 
who had been brought out of their misery to be cared for here. 

The question of caring for these crowds came up at a mass meet- 
ing of the Houston general relief committee held Monday. Every 



Destruction of Galveston. 439 

incoming train brought scores more of people, and immediate action 
was necessary. It was finally decided to pitch tents in Emancipa- 
tion Park, and there as many of the strangers as possible were cared 
for. The hotels could not accommodate one-tenth of them. 

First attention, naturally, was given the survivors' of the storm. 
Mayor Brashear sent word to Mayor Jones of Galveston that all 
persons, no matter who they were, rich or poor, ill or well, should 
be sent to Houston as soon as possible. They would be well pro- 
vided for, he said. The urgency of his message for the depopula- 
tion of Galveston, he explained, was that until sanitation could be 
restored in the wrecked city everybody possible should be sent away. 

It was estimated that nearly 1,000 of the unfortunate survivors 
were sent to Houston on Tuesday from Galveston in response to 
Mayor Brashear 's request. Every building in Houston at all habit- 
able was opened to them, and all the seriously ill comfortably housed. 
The others were made as comfortable as possible, but it was not 
only food and clothing that was wanted; the only relief some of 
them sought could not be furnished. They were grieving for lost 
ones left behind— fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and children. 
Nearly everybody had some relative missing, but few of them were 
certain whether they were dead or alive. All, however, were satis- 
fied that they were dead. 

Men, bareheaded and barefooted, with sunken cheeks and hollow 
eyes ; women and children with tattered clothing and bruised arms 
and faces, and mere infants with bare feet bruised and swollen, were 
among the crowds seen on the streets of Houston. Women of wealth 
and refinement, with hatless heads and gowns of rich material torn 
into shreds, were among the refugees. At times a man and his wife, 
and sometimes with one or two children, could be seen together, but 
such sights were infrequent, for nearly all who went to Houston had 
suffered the loss of one or more of their loved ones. 

But with all this suffering there was a marvelous amount of hero- 
ism shown. A week before most of these people had happy homes 
and their families were around them. The Tuesday following the 
disaster they were homeless, penniless and with nothing to look for- 
ward to. Yet there was scarcely any whimpering or complaining. 
They walked about the streets as if in a trance; they accepted the 



440 Destruction of Galveston. 

assistance offered them with heartfelt thanks, and apparently were 
greatly relieved at being away from the scenes of sorrow and woe 
at home. They were all made to feel at home in Houston, that they 
were welcome and that everything in the power of the people of 
Houston would be done for their comfort and welfare, and yet they 
seemed not to understand half that was said to them. 

John J. Moody, a member of the committee sent from Houston 
to take charge of the relief station at Texas City, reported to the 
Mayor of Houston on Tuesday as follows : 

"To the Mayor— Sir: On arriving at Lamarque this morning 
I was informed that the largest number of bodies was along the 
coast of Texas City. Fifty-six were buried yesterday and to-day 
within less than two miles, extending opposite this place and toward 
Virginia City. It is yet six miles farther to Virginia City, and the 
bodies are thicker where we are now than where they have been 
buried. A citizen inspecting in the opposite direction reports dead 
bodies thick for twenty miles. 

"The residents of this place have lost all— not a habitable build- 
ing left, and they have been too busy disposing of the dead to look 
after personal affairs. Those who have anything left are giving it 
to the others, and yet there is real suffering. I have given away 
nearly all the bread I brought for our own use to hungry children. 

"A number of helpless women and beggared children were 
landed here from Galveston this afternoon and no place to go and 
not a bite to eat. To-morrow others are expected from the same 
place. Every ten feet along the wreck-lined coast tells of acts of 
vandalism ; not a trunk, valise or tool chest but what has been rifled. 
We buried a woman this afternoon whose finger bore the mark of a 
recently removed ring." 

The United States government furnished several thousand tents 
for the Houston camp, which was under the supervision of the 
United States Marine Hospital authorities. 

LIVES LOST AND PROPERTY DAMAGE SUSTAINED OUTSIDE OF 

GALVESTON. 

Galveston property loss by the hurricane was hardly less than 
$20,000,000; outside of that city, in Houston and other points in 



Destruction op Galveston. 441 

Central and Southern Texas, together with the agricultural and 
stock-raising districts, the property damage was nearly half that 
amount, or in the neighborhood of $10,000,000. 

Probably seventy-five villages and towns were swept by the 
storm, and in most of these places there was loss of life. 

It was reliably estimated from reports received at Austin, the 
capital city of Texas, from these places that the loss of life, exclusive 
of the death list of Galveston Island and City of Galveston, would 
aggregate 1,000 people. In many towns the percentage of killed or 
drowned exceeded that in the City of Galveston. Several towns 
were swept completely out of existence. 

The scene of desolation in the devastated district was terrible to 
witness. The storm was over 200 miles wide and extended as far 
inland as Temple, a distance of over 200 miles from the gulf. The 
cotton crop in the lower counties was completely ruined. The same • 
was true of the rice crop. The distress was keenly felt by the plant- 
ers and small farmers throughout the storm-swept region. 

In Houston the damage was not figured at over $400,000; at 
Alvin, $200,000, the town being virtually destroyed and 6,000 people 
in that section deprived not only of shelter and food for the time 
being but all prospect for crops in the year to come. 

On the 15th of September, R. W. King sent out the following 
statement and appeal from Houston after a thorough investigation 
of the situation in and around Alvin : 

"I arrived in Alvin from Dallas and was astonished and be- 
wildered by the sight of devastation on every side. Ninety-five per 
cent of the houses in this vicinity are in ruins, leaving 6,000 people 
without adequate shelter and destitute of the necessaries of life, and 
with no means whatever to procure them. Everything in the way 
of crops is destroyed, and unless there is speedy relief there will be 
exceedingly great suffering. 

The people need and must have assistance. Need money to re- 
build their homes and buy stock and implements. They need food 
—flour, bacon, corn. They must have seeds for their gardens so as 
to be able to do something for themselves very soon. Clothing is 
badly needed. Hundreds of women .and children are without a 
change and are already suffering. Some better idea may be had of 



442 Destruction of Galveston. 

the distress when it is known that box cars are being improvised 
as houses and hay as bedding. Only fourteen houses in the Town of 
Alvin are standing, and they are badly damaged." 

The damage at Hitchcock was not less than $100,000, but the 
news from there was disheartening. A bulletin from a reliable 
source, dated September 15, said: 

1 ' Country districts are strewn with corpses. The prairies around 
Hitchcock are dotted with the bodies of the dead. Scores are un- 
buried, as the bodies are too badly decomposed to handle and the 
water too deep to admit of burial. 

"A pestilence is feared from the decomposing animal matter 
lying everywhere. The stench is something awful. Disinfecting 
material is badly needed. ' ' 

Other outside losses were : 

Propertv. Property. 

Eichmond $75,000 Belleville $5,000 

Fort Bend County 300,000 Hempstead 25,000 

Wharton 30,000 Brookshire 35,000 

Wharton County 100,000 Waller County 100,000 

Colorado County 250,000 Areola 5,000 

Angleton 75,000 Sartartia 50,000 

Velasco 50,000 Dickinson 30,000 

Other points, Brazoria Texas City 150,000 

County 80,000 Columbia 10,000 

Sabine 50,000 Sandy Point 10,000 

Paton 10,000 Near Brazoria (convicts 

Rollover 10,000 killed) 35,000 

Winnie 10,000 Other points 100,000 

Damage to railroads outside of Galveston, $500,000. 

Damage to telegraph and telephone wires outside of Galveston, 
$50,000. 

Damage to cotton crop, estimated on average crop of counties 
affected, 50,000 bales, at $60 a bale, $3,000,000. 

Damage to stock was great, thousands of horses and cattle hav- 
ing perished during the storm. 

In Brazoria and other counties of that section there was hardly 
a plantation building left standing. All fences were also gone and 



Destruction of Galveston. 443 

the devastation was complete. Many large and expensive sugar 
refineries were wrecked. The negro cabins were blown down and 
many negroes killed. On one plantation, a short distance from the 
ill-fated town of Angleton, three families of negroes were killed. 

The villages of Needville and Basley in Fort Bend county were 
completely destroyed and over twenty people were killed, most of 
the bodies having been recovered. Every house in that part of the 
country was destroyed and there was great suffering among the 
homeless people. 

There was much destitution among the people of Richmond in 
the same county. Richmond was one of the most prosperous towns 
in south Texas. It was wholly destroyed and the homeless ones were 
without shelter. Their food supplies were provided by their more 
fortunate neighbors until other assistance could be had. 

The State authorities heard from the Sartaria plantation, where 
several hundred State convicts were employed. Every building on 
the plantation was blown down and the loss to property aggregated 
$35,000. Fifteen convicts were caught under the timbers of a fall- 
ing building and all killed. Over a score of others were injured. 
In addition to the loss on buildings the entire cane crop was de- 
stroyed on this as well as other plantations in that section. 

Seven people were killed in the town of Angleton, which was 
almost completely destroyed. In the neighborhood «of Angleton five 
more persons were killed and their bodies have been recovered. The 
loss of life in that immediate section far exceeded the estimates 
given in the earlier reports.- 

The search for victims of the flood at Seabrook resulted in fifty 
bodies being recovered. Seabrook was a favorite summer resort 
with many Texas people, and its hotels were filled with guests. 
Many were out on pleasure jaunts when the storm came upon them. 
There were many guests in the private houses which were swept 
away. 

The casualties at Texas City were five. 

Velasco, situated near the mouth of the Brazos river, asked for 
help. Over one-half of the town was destroyed and eleven people 
lost their lives. Reports from the adjacent country showed that 
many negroes were killed. 



444 Destruction of Galveston. 

Eleven negro convicts employed on a plantation in Matagorda 
county were killed by the collapse of a building in which they had 
sought refuge from the storm. 

The town of Matagorda, situated on the coast, was in the brunt 
of the storm. Several people were killed in the towns of Caney and 
Elliott, in the same county. The new buildings on the Clemmons 
convict farm, owned and operated by the State, were destroyed and 
several convicts injured. The crops were also ruined. 

Over fifty negroes were killed in Wharton county, ten being 
killed on one plantation near the town of Wharton. 

Bay City suffered a loss of nearly all of its buildings and three 
were killed there. There were many homeless people in Missouri 
City, every house in the town but two being destroyed. The desti- 
tute people were living out of doors and camping on the wet ground. 

Outside of the cities of Galveston and Houston, the greatest 
suffering was between Houston and East Lake, inland, and on the 
coast of the Brazos river. There was no damage at Corpus Christi, 
Rockport, or in that immediate section of the coast. 

People in immediate need of relief were those of the Colorado 
and Brazos river bottoms. The planters in that section had every- 
thing swept away last year, and the flood this year devastated their 
crops, leaving the tenants in a state bordering on starvation. An 
enormous acreage was planted in rice and the crop was ready for 
harvesting when the furious winds laid everything low. 

At Wharton, Sugarland, Quintana, Waller, Prairie View and 
many other smaller places barely a house was left standing. Many 
of the farm hands had been brought into that section to assist at 
cotton picking and other farming. The people were huddled in 
small cabins when the first signs of a storm began brewing. But 
few escaped. Their clothing and everything was gone. They were 
absolutely devoid of even the necessities with which to sustain life. 

To begin over again the owners of plantations had to rebuild 
houses, purchase new machinery and new draft animals. The loss 
of horses and mules in the stricken district was a severe blow. Live 
stock interests were also greatly harmed. 

In the opinion of railway men several years must elapse before 
the farming districts can be restored to their former conditions. 



Destruction of Galveston. 445 

The advanced prices of building material was a hard blow for the 
smaller farmers, who in most instances were owners of farms. 

Appeals for relief were received from everywhere in the storm 
center. The season had given promise of producing the best harvest 
in the previous fifteen years. 

Five Houston people were drowned at Morgan's Point— Mrs. 
C. H. Lucy and her two children, Haven Mcllhenny and the five- 
year-old son of David Rice. Mr. Michael Mcllhenny was rescued 
alive, exhausted and in a state of terrible nervousness. 

Mcllhenny said the water came up so rapidly that he and his 
family sought safety upon the roof. He had Haven in his arms 
and the other children were strapped together. A heavy piece of 
timber struck Haven, killing him. Mcllhenny then took up young 
Rice, and while he had him in his arms he was twice washed off the 
roof and in this way young Rice was drowned. 

Mrs. Lucy's oldest child was next killed by a piece of timber and 
the younger one was drowned, and next Mrs. Lucy was washed off 
and drowned, thus leaving Mr. and Mrs. Mcllhenny the only occu- 
pants on the roof. Finally the roof blew off the house and as it fell 
into the water it was broken in twain, Mrs. Mcllhenny remaining on 
one half and Mcllhenny on the other. The portion of the roof to 
which Mrs. Mcllhenny clung turned over and this was the last seen 
of her. Mcllhenny held to his side of the roof so distracted in mind 
as to care little where or how it drifted. He finally landed about 
2 p. m. Sunday. 

At Surf side, a summer resort opposite Quintana, there were 
seventy-five persons in the hotel. The water was about it, and the 
danger was from the heavy logs floating from above. Only a few 
men worked in the village, so a number of women went into the 
water to their waists and assisted in keeping the logs away from 
the hotel, and no one was lost. 

At Belleville every house in the place was damaged, and several 
were demolished, including two churches. One girl was killed near 
there. Not a house was left at Patterson in a habitable condition. 

Two boarding cars were blown out on the main line and whirled 
along by the wind sixteen miles to Sandy Point, where they collided 



446 Destkuction of Galveston. 

with a number of other boarding cars, killing two and injuring thir- 
teen occupants. 

A dead child, the destruction of all houses except one and the 
destitution of some fifty families is the record of the work of the 
hurricane at Arcadia. From fifty other towns came reports that 
buildings were wrecked or demolished. Most of them reported sev- 
eral dead and injured. 

J. D. Dillon, commercial agent of the Santa Fe Eailway Com- 
pany, made a trip over the line of his road from Hitchcock to Vir- 
ginia Point on foot, September 13, and gave a graphic account of his 
journey, which was made under many difficulties. 

"Twelve miles of track and bridges are gone south of Hitch^ 
cock," said he. "I walked, waded and swam from Hitchcock to 
Virginia Point, and nothing could be seen in all of that country 
but death and desolation. The prairies are covered with water, and 
I do not think I exaggerate when I say that not less than 5,000 
horses and cattle are to be seen along the line of the tracks south of 
Hitchcock. 

' ' The little towns along the railway are all swept away, and the 
sight is the most terrible that I have ever witnessed. When I 
reached a point about two miles north of Virginia Point I saw some 
bodies floating on the prairie, and from that point until Virginia 
Point was reached dead bodies could be seen from the railroad track, 
floating about the prairie. 

"At Virginia Point nothing is left. About 100 cars of loaded 
merchandise that reached Virginia Point on the International and 
Great Northern and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas on the night 
of the storm are scattered over the prairie, and their contents will 
no doubt prove a total loss. ' ' 

On Friday, September 14, from early morning until far into 
the afternoon Governor Sayers was in conference with relief com- 
mittees from various points along the storm-swept coast. Among 
the first committees to arrive was one from Galveston. These men 
consulted at length with the Governor, and as a result of this con- 
ference it was decided that the State Adjutant General, General 
Scurry, should be left in command of the city, which was to be con- 
sidered under military rule, and that lie was to have the exclusive 




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Destruction op Galveston. 449 

control not only of the patrolling of the city, but of the sanitary 
forces engaged in cleaning the city. 

It was decided also that instead of looking to the laboring people 
of Galveston for work in the emergency an importation of outside 
laborers to the number of 2,000 should be made to conduct the sani- 
tary work while the people of Galveston were given an opportunity 
of looking after their own losses and rebuilding their own property 
without giving any time to the city at large. 

It was believed that with the work of these 2,000 outside laborers 
it would require about four weeks to clean the city of debris, and in 
the meantime the citizens could be working on their own property 
and repairing damage there. 

Another relief committee from Velasco reported that 2,000 per- 
sons were in destitute circumstances, without food, clothing, or 
homes. Crops had been totally destroyed, all farming implements 
were washed away, and the people had nothing at hand with which 
to work the fields. 

A relief committee from the Columbia precinct reported 2,500 
destitute. Other sections sent in committees during the day, and 
as a result of all Governor Sayers ordered posthaste shipments of 
supplies. 

The text of the message of sympathy received by President Mc- 
Kinley from the Emperor of Germany was as follows : 

"Stettin, Sept, 13, 1900. -President of the United States of 
America, Washington:— I wish to convey to your excellency the 
expression of my deep-felt sympathy with the misfortune that has 
befallen the town and harbor of Galveston and many other ports 
of the coast, and I mourn with you and the people of the United 
States over the terrible loss of life and property caused by the hurri- 
cane, but the magnitude of the disaster is equaled by the indomitable 
spirit of the citizens of the new world, who, in their long and con- 
tinued struggle with the adverse forces of nature, have proved them- 
selves to be victorious. 

"I sincerely hope that Galveston will rise again to new pros- 
perity. 

"William J. R." 



450 Destruction of Galveston. 

The President replied : 

' 'Executive Mansion, September 14, 1900.— His Imperial and 
Royal Majesty Wilhelm II., Stettin, Germany:— Your majesty's 
message of condolence and sympathy is very grateful to the Ameri- 
can government and people, and in their name, as well as on behalf 
of the many thousands who have suffered bereavement and irrepar- 
able loss in the Galveston disaster, I thank you most earnestly. 

"William McKinley." 

TWO WOMEN TELL HOW THEY WERE AEFECTED AT GALVESTON. 

A woman— a newspaper correspondent, and the first of the fair 
sex from the outside to gain admittance to the Sealed City of Gal- 
veston— wrote a description of what she saw and heard there. She 
arrived in Galveston on Friday, and although she was on a relief 
train carrying doctors, nurses and medical supplies, she had hard 
work to get past the file of soldiers at the wharf, but she at last 
succeeded. 

Said she: 

1 ' The engineer who brought our train down from Houston spent 
the night before groping around in the wrecks on the beach look- 
ing for his wife and three children. He found them, dug a rude 
grave in the sand and set up a little board marked with his name. 

"The man in front of me on the car had floated all Monday 
night with his wife and mother on a part of the roof of his little 
home. He told me that he kissed his wife good-bye at midnight 
and told her that he could not hold on any longer; but he did 
hold on, dazed and half -conscious, until the day broke and showed 
him that he was alone on his piece of driftwood. He did not even 
know when the woman that he loved had died. 

"Every man on the train— there were no women there— had lost 
some one that he loved in the terrible disaster, and was going across 
the bay to try and find some trace of his family. ' ' 

As the train neared Texas City, near Galveston, a great flame 
leaped up, and she said to one of four men near her : ' ' What a ter- 
rible fire ! Some of the large buildings must be burning. ' ' 



Destruction of Galveston. 451 

She then went on to say : 

"A man who was passing down the aisle heard me. He 
stopped, put his hand on_ the car seat and turned down and 
looked into my face, his face like the face of a dead man; but he 
laughed. 

" 'Buildings!' he said. 'Don't you know what is burning over 
there? It is my wife and children— such little children! Why, the 
tallest was not as high as this'— he laid his hand on the car seat— 
' and the little one was just learning to talk. 

" 'She called my name the other day, and now they are burning 
over there— they and the mother who bore them. She was such a 
little, tender, delicate thing, always so easily frightened, and now 
she 's out there all alone with the two babies, and they 're burning. ' 

' ' The man laughed again and began again to walk up and down 
the car. 

" 'That's right,' said the Marshal of the State of Texas, taking 
off his broad hat and letting the starlight shine on his strong face. 
'That's right. We had to do it. We've burned over 1,000 people 
to-day, and to-morrow we shall burn as many more. 

" 'Yesterday we stopped burying the bodies at sea; we had to 
give the men on the barges whisky to give them courage to do the 
work. They carried out hundreds of the dead at one time, men and 
women, negroes and white people, all piled up as high as the barge 
could stand it, and the men did not go out far enough to sea, and 
the bodies have begun drifting back again. ' 

" 'Look!' said the man who was walking the aisle, touching 
my shoulder with his shaking hand. ' Look there ! ' 

"Before I had time to think I had to look, and saw floating in 
the water the body of an old woman, whose hair was shining in the 
starlight, A little farther on we saw a group of strange driftwood. 

' ' We looked closer and found it to be a mass of wooden slabs, 
with names and dates cut upon them, and floating on top of them 
were marble stones, two of them. 

"The graveyard, which has held the sleeping citizens of Gal- 
veston for many, many years, was giving up its dead. We pulled 
up at a little wharf in the hush of the starlight ; there were no lights 
anywhere in the city, except a few scattered lamps shining from a 



452 Destruction of Galveston. 

few desolate, half-destroyed houses. We picked our way up the 
street. The ground was slimy with the debris of the sea. 

"We climbed over wreckage and picked our way through heaps 
of rubbish. The terrible, sickening odor almost overcame us, and 
it was all that I could do to shut my teeth and get through the 
streets somehow. The soldiers were camping on the wharf front, 
lying stretched out on the wet sand, the hideous, hideous sand, 
stained and streaked in the starlight with dark and cruel blotches. 
They challenged us, but the marshal took us through under his 
protection. At every street corner there was a guard, and every 
guard wore a six-shooter strapped around his waist. 

"I went toward the heart of the city. I do not know what the 
names of the streets were or where I was going. I simply picked 
my way through masses of slime and rubbish which scar the beauti- 
ful wide streets of the once beautiful city. 

1 ' They won 't bear looking at, those piles of rubbish. There are 
things there that gripe the heart to see— a baby's shoe, for instance, 
a little red shoe, with a jaunty tasseled lace— a bit of a woman's 
dress and letters. 

"The stench from these piles of rubbish is almost overpower- 
ing. Down in the very heart of the city most of the dead bodies have 
been removed, but it will not do to walk far out. To-day I came 
upon a group of people in a by-street, a man and two women, col- 
ored. The man was big and muscular, one of the women was old 
and one was young. 

' ' They were dijjping in a heap of rubbish and when they heard 
my footsteps the man turned an evil, glowering face upon me and 
the young woman hid something in the folds of her dress. Human 
ghouls, these, prowling in search of prey. 

"A moment later there was a noise and excitement in the little 
narrow street, and I looked back and saw the negro running, with 
a crowd at his heels. The crowd caught him and would have killed 
him, but a policeman came up. 

i * They tied his hands and took him through the streets with a 
whooping rabble at his heels. It goes hard with a man in Galveston 
caught looting the dead in these days. 

"A young man well known in the city shot and killed a negro 



Desteuction of Galveston. 453 

who was cutting the ears from a living woman's head to get her 
ear rings out. The negro lay in the streets like a dead dog, and not 
even the members of his own race would give him the tribute of a 
kindly look. 

"The abomination of desolation reigns on every side. The big 
houses are dismantled, their roofs gone, windows broken* and the 
high water mark showing inconceivably high on the paint. The 
little houses are gone— either completely gone as if they were made 
of cards and a giant hand which was tired of playing with them 
had swept them all off the board and put them away, or they are 
lying in heaps of kindling wood covering no one knows what hor- 
rors beneath. 

' ' The main streets of the city are pitiful. Here and there a shop 
of some sort is left standing. South Fifth street looks like an old 
man's jaw, with one or two straggling teeth protruding. The mer- 
chants are taking their little stores of goods that have been left 
them and are spreading them out in the bright sunshine, trying 
to make some little husbanding of their small capital. The water 
rushed through the stores as it did through the houses, in an irre- 
sistible avalanche that carried all before it. The wonder is not that 
so little of Galveston is left standing, but that there is any of it 
at all. 

' ' Every street corner has its story, in its history of misery and 
human agony bravely endured. The eye-witnesses of a hundred 
deaths have talked to me and told me their heart-rending stories, 
and not one of them has told of a cowardly death. 

' ' The women met their fate as did the men, bravely and for the 
most part with astonishing calmness. A woman told me that she 
and her husband went into the kitchen and climbed upon the kitchen 
table to get away from the waves, and that she knelt there and 
prayed. 

' ' As she prayed, the storm came in and carried the whole house 
away, and her husband with it, and yesterday she went out to the 
place where her husband had been, and there was nothing there but 
a little hole in the ground. 

"Her husband's body was found twisted in the branches of a 
tree, half a mile from the place where she last saw him. She recog- 



454 Destkugtion of Galveston. 

nized him by a locket he had around his neck— the locket she gave 
him before they were married. It had her picture and a lock of 
the baby 's hair in it. The woman told me all this without a tear or 
a trace of emotion. No one cries here. 

' ' They will stand and tell the most hideous stories, stories that 
would turn the blood in the veins of a human machine cold with 
horror, without the quiver of an eyelid. A man sat in the telegraph 
office and told me how he had lost two Jersey cows and some chick- 
ens. 

"He went into minute particulars, told how his house was built 
and what it cost, and how it was strengthened and made firm against 
the weather. He told me how the storm had come and swept it all 
away, and how he had climbed over a mass of wabbling roofs and 
found a friend lying in the curve of a big roof, in the stoutest part 
of the tide, and how they two had grasped each other and what they 
said. 

"He told me just how much his cows cost and why he was so 
fond of them, and how hard he had tried to save them, but I said : 
' You have saved yourself and your family ; you ought not to com- 
plain. ' 

1 ' The man stared at me with blank, unseeing eyes. 

" 'Why, I did not save my family,' he said. 'They were all 
drowned. I thought you knew that; I don't talk very much about 
it,' 

' ' The hideous horror of the whole thing has benumbed every one 
who saw it," 

ASSISTANCE QUICK AND CHAEITY BOUNTIFUL. 

The American people proved their charitable spirit in the case 
of Galveston as they have proved it at all times,— as they are prov- 
ing it now in the case of Martinique. 

On September 18, ten days after the storm swept over Galveston, 
Chicago had raised over $100,000 for the Galveston sufferers ; New 
York nearly $300,000 ; St. Louis nearly $70,000, and other cities the 
following amounts : 



Destruction of Galveston. 455 

Boston $32,700 

Philadelphia 28,320 

Pittsburg 27,108 

New Orleans 26,100 

San Francisco 18,000 

Kansas City 17,000 

Louisville 14,000 

Milwaukee 14,046 

Baltimore . . 15,000 

Denver 13,000 

Minneapolis 12,000 

Newark, N. J 12,000 

Cleveland 9,345 

Memphis 9,123 

Cincinnati 9,000 

Colorado Springs 7,200 

St. Paul 7,000 

Topeka, Kan 5,438 

Charleston, S. C 6,000 

Omaha, Neb 6,212 

Los Angeles 5,184 

Detroit, Mich 5,190 

Indianapolis 4,000 

Helena, Mont 4,108 

Johnstown, Pa , 3,000 

Columbus, Ohio 3,100 

South Bend, Ind 1,985 

Springfield, 111 2,000 

Portland, Ore 2,100 

Lexington, Ky 2,098 

The United States embassy at Berlin, Germany, cabled $500 to 
Governor Sayers on September 17. 

Later food, clothing, lumber and medicines, as well as money, 
were forwarded in large quantities. 

The courage and self-helpfulness of the people of the United 
States is also well represented in the case of Galveston. The city 
which was practically wiped off the map in 1900 has been in the 
short time intervening practically rebuilt, but far more solidly and 
more beautiful than formerly. Galveston is once more the great 
port of the South. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE WEST INDIAN VOLCANOES AND THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 

Disturbance in Lesser Antilles — Professor Keilprin's Views Regarding the 
Collapse of These Islands — Nicaragua Canal Route in Danger — Weakness 
of Earth's Crust in Certain Localities — Scientists' Former Ideas of 
Craters Scouted— The Future of the World— Drilling the Earth for Heat — 
Prophecies for the Year 1902— God Reigns — The World Lives. 

Since the recent disturbance of nature in the Lesser Antilles, 
inquiring minds have been at work and to-day the question is being 
asked, "Is it wisdom on the part of the United States to further 
consider the Nicaragua canal route?" 

Professor Angelo Heilprin, the eminent geologist and authority 
on volcanolgy, declares there is danger that all the West Indian 
reef islands will collapse and sink into the sea from the effects of 
the volcanic disturbances now in progress. More than that, he says, 
the Nicaraguan canal route is in danger because it is in the eruption 
zone. 

WEST INDIES MAY DISAPPEAK. 

"In my opinion the volcano eruptions are not the only things 
to be feared, ' ' he continued. "It is altogether likely that the vol- 
canic disturbance now going on may result in the collapse of the 
islands whose peaks spring into activity. 

"The constant eruptions of rock, lava and ashes means that 
a hole, as it were, is being made in the bosom of the earth. When 
this hole reaches a great size, that which is above will be without 
support, and then subsidence must follow. ' ' 

In Professor Heilprin 's opinion the outburst of Mont Pelee 
and the great Soufriere on Mont Garou are arguments against the 
use of the Nicaragua route for a transisthmian canal. 

In speaking directly upon the subject of the eruptions in the 
Windward Islands, Professor Heilprin said that it would be impos- 
sible for any geologist to assign a cause for the disturbance, and 
continued : 

4B8 



The Nicabagua Canal. 457 

WEAKNESS OF THE EARTH'S CRUST. 

"The volcanoes of Martinique and St. Vincent, and of the neigh- 
boring islands of the Caribbean, are situated in a region of extreme 
weakness of the earth 's crust, which has its parallel in the Mediter- 
ranean basin on the opposite side of the Atlantic. 

' ' This American region of weakness extends westward from the 
Lesser Antilles across the Gulf of Mexico into Mexico proper, where 
are located some of the loftiest volcanoes of the globe, Popocateptl 
and Orizaba, both now in somnolent condition, and including the 
more westerly volcano of Colima, which has been almost continu- 
ously in eruption for ten years. 

"This same region of weakness includes nearly the whole of 
Central America. Volcanoes in Costa Eica, Nicaragua and Guate- 
mala have been repeatedly active, some almost to the present time, 
many with destructive effect, and it should be no surprise to have 
some of them burst out with the same vigor and intensity as Mont 
Pelee or the Souf riere. ' ' 

Walter Wellman, a Washington correspondent of the Chicago 
Record-Herald, says: 

"It is believed by conservative senators that an isthmian canal 
bill will be passed, and that the disasters in the Lesser Antilles have 
smothered all hopes of the advocates of the Nicaragua route. Emi- 
nent scientists have long contended that the Nicaragua route should 
never be adopted because a canal there will have to pass through a 
volcanic country. They have pointed out that volcanoes are never 
to be ignored, no matter how long they have been sleeping, for no 
one can tell when they will rouse themselves and work terrible de- 
struction. 

' ' Scientists have scouted the theory that a volcanic region is safe 
because the craters are vent holes through which the titanic subter- 
ranean forces may find outlet. Mont Pelee has settled this theory 
once for all. 

NICARAGUA A VOLCANIC COUNTRY. 

"Nicaragua is a volcanic country. There are volcanic peaks in 
Lake Nicaragua, through which the canal must pass. The route of 



458 The Nicaragua Canal. 

the proposed canal lies in a dangerous area. There are ten volcanic 
mountains within a short distance of the canal line. 

"At Panama there are no volcanoes, and none within 200 miles. 
Earthquakes are not unknown there, but the danger from this source 
is far less than in Nicaragua." 

The interior of the earth is so hot that it is estimated that in a 
mine the temperature rises one degree for every sixty feet a shaft 
is sunk. Far deeper than any shaft has ever been sunk, the earth is 
simply a mass of molten lava— melted stone, in other words, and 
between us and this mass of fire there is a crust that bears about 
the same proportion to the depth of the earth that the skin of an 
apple does to the apple itself. 

In some places this crust is thinner than it is in other places, 
because in some places there has not been so much time for the sur- 
face of the earth to cool, and it is the continual changing of the 
earth's surface— which in appearance may be likened to the skin of 
a shriveled apple— that produces earthquakes and volcanoes. 

The pressure of the earth's crust upon the molten lava brings 
on a conflict that results in seismic shocks and often forces the lava 
up through the crust of the earth. Thus huge mountains are often 
formed. 

Mont Pelee, which has just killed so many thousand people, 
was of volcanic origin. It had for centuries poured out molten 
lava, which had run over and increased its height and size. 

INQUIRY INTO THE FUTURE. 

Recalling the great natural calamities in the past history of the 
world as given in the above brief and somewhat incomplete record, 
it is suggestive of the human feeling regarding these great calami- 
ties at the present day in comparison with those of past times. Vol- 
umes upon volumes have been written upon the destruction of 
Pompeii, by which, probably, not more than 3,000 souls were de- 
stroyed, which took place in the very dawn of the Christian era. 
How it has been talked about, written about and referred to through 
all the centuries. It was a natural tragedy of the most appalling 
nature. Since then similar great natural calamities have taken 



The Nicaragua Canal. 459 

place, and how little they are talked about and how soon they pass 
out of human thought. In the past ages, when the world's popula- 
tion was small, few such terrible events occurred and there were 
few to tell about them. In recent times, the world has been moving 
in an era of great events ; of great wars, great deeds, great triumphs, 
great natural calamities— Johnstown, Galveston and similar occur- 
rences in which thousands of human lives have been destroyed. We 
have become accustomed to them. The destruction of St. Pierre 
with about 30,000 human beings is a terrible calamity, but it is 
looked upon very differently in 1902 from what the destruction of 
Pompeii was in 79. Are still greater national calamities awaiting the 
people of the globe ? Do we know the lesson of the Mont Pelee erup- 
tion! We only gather from it that the processes of nature in the de- 
struction of entire cities with thousands of inhabitants are in a state 
of evolution now as they were when our globe was thousands of 
years younger than it is. We dare not project our inquiry into the 
future to conjecture what the million of years will unfold. 

HUMAN NATURE THE SAME. 

Some scientists expressed no surprise at the catastrophe in the 
West Indies. They knew it was coming; had known it for many 
years, and immediately undertook to explain it with considerable 
circumstantiality. It is a misfortune that they did not make public 
their information— at least, to the people in Martinique. It might 
have saved some lives— not many, perhaps, for human nature is 
peculiar. Many people in St. Pierre had horses saddled ready for 
flight days before the final outburst; but hung on, in spite of the 
muttering and rumbling and shaking, and perished at last in the 
fiery shower. There are towns and villages at this moment on the 
sides of a volcano which has burned whole communities before now, 
and which is almost constantly in eruption. 

It would be folly to talk of the stupidity of such people. Pliny 
the elder— than whom there was no greater Eoman— defied the 
thunders of Vesuvius until engulfed in a sea of ashes. Human 
nature is prone to disregard danger until too late for escape. Many 
proceed on the principle that what has occurred once will not occur 



460 The Nicabagtja Canal. 

in the same spot again. Nor is it reasonable to abandon a locality 
because it has once been visited by a cataclysm. There is not a spot 
on the globe which has not been thus visited at one time or another. 
In very recent years Charleston has been the scene of a terrible con- 
vulsion, but the people are living and working and building there 
as though nothing of the sort had ever happened. The people in 
St. Pierre were like other people, and those who are left are entitled 
to the practical sympathy of mankind. 

DRILL THE EARTH FOR HEAT. 

One of Ohio 's prominent oil men suggests the heating of homes 
with the internal heat of the earth. He proposes to drill a well down 
to such a depth as will be necessary to strike a volcanic formation 
such as will belch forth hot water, steam, lava or some other heated 
substance. It is a known fact that heat grows more intense as the 
distances from the surfaces increase. Scientists have long advanced 
the idea that the interior of the earth a short distance from the outer 
surface is in an intensely heated state. So far wells have been 
drilled scarcely deeper than a mile. If drilling tools could permit 
the sinking of a well five or ten times that depth some startling 
results might follow. Suppose a vein of volcanic substance should 
be drilled into of the same strife as that which destroyed the island 
of Martinique recently, such a well might soon prove to be an ele- 
phant on the hands of the owner. However, laying all joking aside, 
it is quite a prevailing thought among scientists that some day the 
world will be heated from its tremendous and inexhaustible supply 
in the interior. Such a state of affairs appears rather improbable 
at present but who can tell, more wonderful things have happened. 

PROPHECIES FOR THE YEAR 1902. 

This year 1902 is one referred to by many alleged prophets and 
seers as a period in which sun spots, earthquakes and eruptions 
were to be prevalent. The sun spots have not yet shown up, but 
the quakes have been many, and in opposite parts of the world. 
Since the dawning of New Year's day there have been earth- 
quakes— 



The Nicaragua Canal. 461 

In the Caucasus, some 8,000 lives lost. 

In Japan, no great loss of life. 

In San Salvador, no loss of life. 

In Guatemala, several thousand killed. 

In the Galveston region, no loss of life. 

In California, no loss of life. 

In Hawaii, no loss of life. 

In Alaska near Mount Elias, several lives lost. 

There have been also severe glacial slides, breaking away of 
eminences, a continuation of the general earth process of leveling 
down, humbling the mighty to the plane of the low. That the 
prophets or seers had anything to do with all this is absurd— the 
earth has her burdens as well as man, and 1902 happens to be one of 
the years in which she is toppling some of them off. Mont Pelee was 
her voice speaking. 

GOD REIGNS. 

With all the foregoing thoughts and statements, some may won- 
der if it is worth while to live. Most certainly it is, and these are 
grand days in which to live. Let us go on down through the ages 
]iving our best and doing our best. Let us remember that God 
reigns. If at times these activities of nature cause us to halt, let us 
not halt long, but push on. It is our life, our destiny. As we go 
along let us comfort ourselves with the beautiful things of life— 
do good deeds— think pure thoughts and read good literature. 

THE DAY IS DONE. 

(BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.) 

The day is done, and the darkness 

Falls from the wings of Night, 
As a feather is wafted downward 

From an eagle in his flight. 

I see the lights of the village 

Gleam through the rain and the mist, 

And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me 
That my soul cannot resist: 



462 The Nicaragua Canal. 

A feeling of sadness and longing 
That is not akin to pain, 

And resembles sorrow only 
As the mist resembles the rain. 

Come, read to me some poem, 
Some simple and heartfelt lay, 

That shall soothe this restless feeling, 
And banish the thoughts of day. 

Not from the grand old masters, 
Not from the bards sublime, 

Whose distant footsteps echo 
Through the corridors of Time. 

For, like strains of martial music, 

Their mighty thoughts suggest 
Life 's endless toil and endeavor ; 

And to-night I long for rest- 
Read from some humbler poet, 

Whose songs gushed from his heart 
As showers from the clouds of summer 

Or tears from the eyelids start; 

W x ho, through long days of labor 
And nights devoid of ease, 

Still heard in his soul the music 
Of wonderful melodies. 

Such songs have power to quiet 
The restless pulse of care, 

And come like the benediction 
That follows after prayer. 

Then read from the treasured volume 
The poem of thy choice, 

And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
The beauty of thy voice. 

And the night shall be filled with music, 
And the cares that infest the day 

Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, 
And as silentlv steal awav. 



